As alleged in the indictment, Anton Peraire-Bueno and James Pepaire-Bueno are brothers who studied mathematics and computer science at one of the most prestigious universities in the country. Using the specialized skills developed during their education, as well as their expertise in cryptocurrency trading, Anton Peraire-Bueno and James Pepaire-Bueno exploited the very integrity of the Ethereum blockchain in order to fraudulently obtain approximately $25 million worth of cryptocurrency from victim cryptocurrency traders (the 'Exploit'). Through the Exploit, which is believed to be the very first of its kind, Anton Peraire-Bueno and James Pepaire-Bueno manipulated and tampered with the process and protocols by which transactions are validated and added to the Ethereum blockchain. In doing so, they fraudulently gained access to pending private transactions and used that access to alter certain transactions and obtain their victims’ cryptocurrency