Platypus hacker walks free with $8.5M after claiming to be ‘ethical hacker’
While hackers Mohammed M. and his brother were cleared of all criminal charges, 7.8 million euros worth of crypto tokens became inaccessible after getting stuck in a wallet.
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.
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.
Considering the similarity to a bug bounty attempt, the brothers were cleared of all criminal charges.
Related: Platypus Finance recovers 90% of assets lost in exploit
Amid legal proceedings related to the hack, Platypus recently suffered a loss of $2.2 million in another flash loan exploit.
