Ex-Amazon engineer gets three years for hacking DeFi platforms

A former software engineer for Amazon.com, Shakeed Ahmed was sentenced to three years in prison after confessing to stealing millions of dollars' worth of cryptocurrencies by breaking into two decentralised finance websites. — Image by fabrikasimf on Freepik

A former Amazon.com software engineer who admitted to stealing millions of dollars in cryptocurrency by hacking two decentralised finance platforms was ordered to spend three years behind bars.

Shakeeb Ahmed, 34, was sentenced Friday by US District Judge Victor Marrero on Friday. Ahmed pleaded guilty in December to taking advantage of flaws in the DeFi platforms’ so-called smart contracts to insert fake pricing data, generating about US$12mil (RM57.3mil) of inflated and unearned profits that he was able to withdraw in cryptocurrency.