Federal prosecutors in the United States have charged Andean Medjedovic, a Canadian national and University of Waterloo graduate, with orchestrating attacks on two DeFi protocols that resulted in millions of dollars in losses.
The Justice Department indicted Medjedovic on February 3 for wire fraud, computer hacking, attempted extortion, and money laundering linked to the 2023 KyberSwap and 2021 Indexed Finance exploits. He allegedly manipulated smart contracts to exploit vulnerabilities, stealing $48.8 million from KyberSwap and $16.5 million from Indexed Finance, leaving investors with worthless assets.
Authorities discovered that Medjedovic meticulously planned attacks, maintaining directories with terms like “KYBER_KILL” and “templateexploit.” He also created a “POOL HIT LIST” to identify liquidity pools to target, with notes indicating strategic timing for the attacks, particularly when U.S. and European investors would be asleep.
He reportedly laundered the stolen cryptocurrency using mixers and fake identities to conceal his actions. He allegedly attempted to unlock $500,000 frozen in a bridge by paying an undercover agent $85,000. Facing multiple charges, including wire fraud and money laundering, he could receive up to 20 years in prison for each count, plus an additional 10 years for unauthorized hacking. Despite extensive efforts by U.S. authorities and the Dutch National Police, he remains at large.
After the KyberSwap hack, Medjedovic allegedly tried to extort the protocol’s developers and investors by demanding platform control in exchange for returning half of the stolen funds. In response, KyberSwap launched a treasury program on December 20, 2023, to compensate affected users, with the grant fully distributed to 1,371 recipients.
The indictment of Medjedovic follows another major case involving cryptocurrency-related crimes. A U.S. federal grand jury recently charged three Russian nationals—Roman Ostapenko, Alexander Oleynik, and Anton Tarasov—for running cryptocurrency mixing services Blender.io and Sinbad.io. These platforms reportedly facilitated money laundering for cybercriminals, including ransomware operators and state-sponsored hackers.
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