The justice system drops charges against hackers of Platypus Finance:
- Acquittal of brothers accused of hacking Platypus Finance.
- One of the accused claims to be an ‘ethical hacker’.
- Charges dropped due to lack of evidence of fraud or unauthorized access.
Retrospective of the Platypus Finance hack
In February 2023, Platypus Finance, an Automated Market Maker protocol on Avalanche, fell victim to a $8.5 million hacking incident. The accused, identified as brothers Mohammed and Benamar M., were arrested a week after the hack, following information provided by crypto detective ZachXBT and Binance.
French authorities charged 22-year-old Mohammed with multiple charges related to the attack, while his brother was accused of receiving stolen goods. Prosecutors sought a five-year prison sentence for Mohammed.
The twists in the case
However, the brothers were acquitted after Mohammed pleaded to be an ‘ethical hacker,’ claiming to have acquired the funds with the intention of later returning them to the protocol, hoping to receive a 10% reward of the total amount.
During the attack, Mohammed allegedly accidentally locked millions of dollars of stolen funds, only managing to retrieve approximately $270,000. Platypus successfully saved $2.4 million in USDC through a counter-hack.
The judges believed that since Mohammed accessed a publicly available smart contract, the charges of unauthorized access to a computer system did not apply.
Furthermore, Mohammed’s use of the Platypus ’emergency withdrawal’ smart contract, which was the same vulnerability exploited, was not considered fraud. As a result, charges of money laundering and receiving stolen goods were also dropped. However, the judges reminded the brothers that Platypus could still pursue civil action against them, specifying that the decision was not a ‘blank check’.
