Canadian charged with theft of $65 million worth of crypto from KyberSwap, Indexed Finance, remains at large

Canadian national Andean Medjedovic was charged with wire fraud, computer hacking, attempted extortion and money laundering related to the alleged theft of $65 million worth of cryptocurrency across two decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. 

Medjedovic purportedly exploited vulnerabilities in the smart contracts of KyberSwap and Indexed Finance liquidity pools, stealing around $48.8 million and $16.5 million, respectively, according to a release from the United States Department of Justice. 

"This was a sophisticated fraud that exploited vulnerabilities in ‘smart contracts,' resulting in the theft of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency," said IRS-CI New York Special Agent in Charge Harry Chavis, Jr. in a statement. "It’s alleged that Medjedovic executed a hack that stole nearly $65 million in crypto between two schemes, leaving liquidity pool investors in the red."

The exploit targeting KyberSwap's Elastic Pools liquidity solution occurred on Nov. 22, 2023. Immediately after the incident, KyberSwap offered a 10% bounty to the hacker and managed to recover $4.7 million worth of funds. The hacker then demanded total control of the firm overseeing Kyberswap, "temporary" control over the platform's governance mechanism KyberDAO, all information related to the company's structure and finances as well as the firm's on- and off-chain assets.

Indexed Finance's liquidity pool attack happened in October 2021. Following additional attacks in 2023, control of Indexed Finance went from its DAO to its founders, who would return the protocol's remaining treasury to the 2021 exploit victims, The Block previously reported. 

Though charged, Medjedovic remains at large, the Justice Department release continues.