A software engineer was sentenced to three years in prison over the Nirvana hack.
Shakib Ahmed, a computer security engineer, was sentenced to three years in prison by the Southern District of New York (SDNI) court. Ahmed was found guilty of Flash Credit Attack on 2022 Decentralized Crypto Exchange and Nirvana Exchange.
US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that Ahmed's guilty plea was the first for smart contract hacking. Ahmed was ordered to forfeit $12.3 million, as well as a “substantial amount of cryptocurrency,” and to pay back $5 million in changes.
Ahmed has offered to return all but $1.5 million of the money stolen from the cryptocurrency exchange if he does not come into contact with law enforcement. Nirvana offered him $600,000 to return the money, but Ahmed demanded $1.4 million of the $3.6 million he stole and no deal was reached.
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Nirvana's NIRV stablecoin is denominated in US dollars, while its home country ANA coin fell 85% on news of the hack and was shut down soon after. According to the SDNY statement, Ahmed testified to the stolen funds:
“Using Token-Swap Transactions; ‘Coordination' Scam Moves From Solana Blockchain To Ethereum Blockchain; Swap Scam Moves To Monero […]; Using foreign currency exchange; And using cryptocurrency microcryptors like Zamora Whirlpool.
A third exchange in July 2022 was allegedly hacked using similar tactics, but the federal indictment did not link it to that hack.
Ahmed was employed as a “senior security engineer for a global technology company” at the time of the attack, according to the statement. According to Bloomberg, Ahmed was the technical lead for Amazon's bug bounty program.
Ahmed, who was released on bail, is now working for a mental health services startup, according to Inner City Press. That publication quoted him as saying: “I saw a hack, I found a way to use the exchange's smart contracts. I went into therapy on probation.
Ahmed was arrested in New York and charged with wire fraud and money laundering in connection with the July abduction. He pleaded guilty to computer fraud in December.
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