A Canadian national is facing serious charges in the United States for allegedly exploiting decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, resulting in the theft of approximately $65 million and subsequent money laundering activities. The indictment, unsealed in a Brooklyn federal court, accuses Andean Medjedovic of several offenses, including hacking, attempted extortion, money laundering, and wire fraud. Currently, he is believed to be on the run.
According to the allegations, Medjedovic manipulated the systems of Indexed Finance and KyberSwap to siphon off large sums of money. Specifically, in October 2021, he executed deceptive trades that allowed him to steal around $16.5 million from Indexed Finance’s liquidity pools. His activities escalated in November 2023 when he reportedly targeted KyberSwap, extracting an estimated $48.8 million.
Prosecutors detail that Medjedovic engaged in a fraudulent trading scheme, borrowing vast amounts of digital tokens and exploiting vulnerabilities within the smart contracts of the platforms. This manipulation reportedly resulted in the miscalculation of key financial metrics, enabling him to withdraw investor funds at artificially inflated values, thus rendering many victims’ investments nearly worthless.
Furthermore, after his alleged exploitation of KyberSwap, Medjedovic reportedly attempted to extort the victims by proposing a false settlement. He communicated through on-chain messages, threatening to prolong discussions about the return of funds unless he was granted control over the protocol in exchange for returning half of the assets he had illegitimately acquired.
Additionally, the indictment claims that Medjedovic conspired with a relative to launder the stolen cryptocurrency through a mixer and various blockchain bridges, intending to convert the funds into cash via exchanges and bank accounts created with fictitious details. When a bridge protocol froze some of the assets, he allegedly offered $85,000 to an undercover law enforcement officer, who was posing as a software developer, to unfreeze the funds.
