Ex-Security Engineer Jailed 3 Years for $12.3 Million Crypto Exchange Thefts

A former security engineer, Shakeeb Ahmed, pleaded guilty to exploiting smart-contract vulnerabilities in two DeFi exchanges in July 2022 to steal about $12.3M, using techniques such as fake pricing data and flash-loan-style manipulation; he laundered funds via cross-chain bridges and mixers (including conversion to Monero). Ahmed was sentenced to three years in prison, three years of supervised release, ordered to forfeit ~ $12.3M and pay over $5M in restitution, and the attacks led to one exchange shutting down.