Ethereum Delerium

Two brothers allegedly stole $25 million worth of crypto. Now they claim they should be allowed to keep it

“We have elected to put our money and faith in a mathematical framework that is free of politics and human error.” – Tyler Winklevoss

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Two brothers allegedly cracked the code on Ethereum, downloaded themselves $25 million worth of the cryptocurrency, refused to return the money, and are now asking a judge to drop the case because … Trump.

This is the kind of genius we find at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Anton Peraire-Bueno, 24, of Boston, and James Pepaire-Bueno, 28, of New York, studied computer science and math at MIT. Their father is Jaime Peraire, the H.N. Slater Professor in Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT.

(Photo credit: Kanchanara on Unsplash)

Instead of tackling some of the world’s most vexing problems, the Pepaire-Bueno brothers allegedly decided to invent a new way to pinch the pot.

The first-of-its-kind fraud snatched up $25 million in just 12 seconds, prosecutors allege. They did this by attacking vulnerabilities in the blockchain technology that undergirds cryptocurrencies.

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The brothers were indicted in May. They’ve pleaded not guilty, remain free on $250,000 bonds (each), and aren’t slated for trial until October. Meantime, they’re asking the judge to dismiss the case because they think that’s what Trump would want.

“The federal government is currently disavowing arguments that cryptocurrencies qualify as securities under the Securities Act and has halted its prior regulation-by-enforcement regime,” the brothers’ attorneys wrote in a court filing on Monday.

Indeed, the Trump administration’s hands-off policies in this dodgy realm have given crypto kleptos every indication that it’s game on.

Meantime, the brothers have proved to the world that cryptocurrency transactions are no where near as secure as they thought. Here’s how U.S. Attorney Damian Williams characterized their scheme in a press release.

“The defendants’ scheme calls the very integrity of the blockchain into question. The brothers, who studied computer science and math at one of the most prestigious universities in the world, allegedly used their specialized skills and education to tamper with and manipulate the protocols relied upon by millions of Ethereum users across the globe.”

Too bad there is not a Nobel Prize for online thievery.