Two brothers, responsible for the theft of $8.5 million from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Platypus, were allowed to walk free with no repercussions by a French court.
On Feb. 16, hackers managed to drain and move $8.5 million from Platypus through a flash loan attack, forcing the protocol to suspend trading services until a resolution was found. Initial investigations identified Mohammed M. as the culprit, who took advantage of a code error and withdrew all assets through an uncollateralized loan.
We are seeing a #flashloan attack on @Platypusdefi resulting in a potential loss of ~$8.5M.
Tx AVAX: 0x1266a937c2ccd970e5d7929021eed3ec593a95c68a99b4920c2efa226679b430
Stay Frosty! pic.twitter.com/AM2HOM5M2r
— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) February 16, 2023
With the help of Binance’s security team and independent crypto investigators, the stolen funds were tracked, eventually leading to the hackers — Mohammed and his brother Benamar M.
While the duo were held indefinitely in custody from Feb. 24, on an Oct. 26 court hearing, the brothers claimed to be “ethical hackers” while admitting to stealing and siphoning the funds. The hackers also told the Paris judicial court about their intent to return the funds in exchange for…
