DOJ indicts MEV bot operators for wire fraud, money laundering

The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted two brothers, Anton Peraire-Bueno and James Pepaire-Bueno, over an alleged Ethereum MEV-bot exploit that prosecutors say stole about $25 million in cryptocurrency. The charges include conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, and prosecutors described the scheme as novel and previously uncharged. According to the indictment summarized in reporting, the brothers allegedly used a technically sophisticated, seconds-long attack to manipulate Ethereum’s block-building process and trick MEV bots into buying illiquid tokens before preventing the bots’ intended follow-up trades. Prosecutors say the alleged exploit took advantage of a vulnerability in Flashbots/MEV-Boost infrastructure, and that the defendants’ post-incident searches suggested efforts to hide or launder the proceeds. The case matters because it is being treated as a first-of-its-kind test of how U.S. fraud and money-laundering laws apply to MEV strategies, validator behavior, and other gray areas in Ethereum’s trading and block-construction ecosystem.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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• DOJ charges 2 brothers tied to $25M attack on MEV bots last year (blockworks.com)

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• DOJ
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• Money laundering