Evan Frederick Wright, a 21-year-old man from Indiana, pleaded guilty to stealing $37,704,560 worth of virtual currency from 571 victims in a 2022 cyberattack.
According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, Wright stole the virtual currency from an unnamed investment holding company based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
In a statement of facts obtained by BleepingComputer, Wright said he and an unknown co-conspirator stole the identities of the company’s legitimate customers and accessed the company’s servers. It then exploited the vulnerability to spread further within the network.
Wright alleges that he used this access to steal the personal information of the company’s customers and used that information to steal cryptocurrency.
“After successfully gaining access to the investment holding company’s computer servers, my co-conspirators or I, along with one or more individuals, extracted PII of hundreds of other customers from the servers,” the statement of facts reads. It is written.
“I ultimately used this access to steal cryptocurrencies from customers whose assets were held in investment holding companies.”
Wright allegedly stole a total of $37,704,560 worth of virtual currency from 571 victims and transferred it to various coin-mixing services and gambling websites in order to hide the traces of the assets and conceal his true identity. He says he continued.
“After gaining control of the stolen cryptocurrencies, some of these proceeds were transferred to multiple mixing services, gambling websites, etc., in order to hide my identity and the identity of my co-conspirators, and to hide the cryptocurrencies. It poured into different places around the world,” Wright said.
Nevertheless, the FBI was able to track down and arrest Wright, leading to his indictment in May 2023.
Wright initially did not admit guilt, but has now admitted to involvement in the cyber attack.
Wright faces up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and restitution on each charge.
It remains to be seen whether victims will be able to get their money back, as authorities have not announced the seizure of any assets held by Wright.
Last month, the FBI reported that cryptocurrency losses in 2023 reached a record $5.6 billion, breaking new records every year since 2019.
To maximize the security of your cryptocurrencies, use cold wallets that store your cryptocurrencies offline and are less susceptible to hacking, use multi-factor authentication, and limit the sharing of sensitive information online. is recommended.
