Feds Get Conviction of $50 Million Crypto Hack

Image by DC Studio on Magnific

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jamie McDonald, announced the conviction by jury of JONATHAN SPALLETTA, a/k/a “Cthulhon,” a/k/a “Jspalletta,” for computer fraud and money laundering in connection with his hacks of the decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Uranium Finance (“Uranium”).  SPALLETTA was convicted on all counts of the Indictment following a six day jury trial before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff.

“As a unanimous Manhattan jury has found, Jonathan Spalletta repeatedly exploited vulnerabilities in the code of a decentralized cryptocurrency platform to steal tens of millions of dollars,” said U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald.  “Spalletta’s own words are indicative of his dangerously misguided indifference for his victims and the hardships he caused, saying: ‘Crypto is just fake internet money anyway.’  As Spalletta’s many victims know, those words could not be further from the truth.  Spalletta’s crimes cost real people to lose real money—over $50 million dollars—and caused an entire crypto platform to collapse.  Our prosecutors of the Office and our agency partners have done outstanding work to ensure Spaletta’s virtual world criminal conduct ended in his real-world criminal conviction.”