Platypus exploiters walk free after claiming to be ‘ethical hackers’
While 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.
A French court has allowed two brothers responsible for the theft of $8.5 million from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Platypus to walk free with no repercussions.
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.
The brothers had been held in custody since Feb.
Considering its similarity to a bug bounty attempt, the court cleared the brothers of all criminal charges.
Related: Platypus Finance recovers 90% of assets lost in exploit
Amid the legal proceedings related to the hack, Platypus recently suffered a $2.2 million loss in another flash loan exploit.
