French DeFi Platypus protocol hackers released

The pirates behind the hack from Platypus have been released by the justice. A decision similar to a incentive to crime “according tolawyer specialized in crypto Victor Charpiat.

The Paris judicial court has acquitted the two individuals accused of the hack of the decentralized finance protocol Platypusrecently reported Le Monde.

The DeFi platform lost more than $8 million last February following a flash loan attack. The alleged hackers, two brothers living in the Paris region, were arrested by the authorities just a few days after the tragedy, thanks to an investigation carried out by ZachXBT in collaboration with crypto exchange Binance.

According to the daily, the defendants, who admitted their guilt, defended themselves by saying they had acted as “ethical hackers”. They wanted to “recover funds at risk from the Platypus platform and return them later”, hoping to receive a reward in exchange for the return of the funds.

For Victor Charpiat, this court decision is “worrying”. The lawyer specializing in crypto even describes it as a “push to crime” on X.

By failing to convict and deferring to a hypothetical civil trial, the court worryingly acknowledges that criminal law is powerless in the face of these protocol hacks. If the law is powerless, hackers can act with impunity”, he explained.

⚖️🚨 JUSTICE DECISION ON PLATYPUS HACK: a crime pusher?

The Paris Court of First Instance has just acquitted the two suspects in the Platypus hack.

A decision that is frankly worrying, as the judge is essentially saying that criminal law is powerless.

Small thread ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/V1ZpWxBmLS

– Victor Charpiat (🐊,🐊) (@VCharpiat) December 1, 2023

In his thread X, Victor Charpiat points out that the public prosecutor had requested 5 years’ imprisonment, including 2 years for several offences including fraud and money laundering for the main perpetrator – the other being charged with handling stolen goods only. However, the court was unable to establish the offences, and therefore acquitted the accused. “So the fraud is not established and the hacker walks free as a bird”, he added, adding that the public prosecutor could appeal the case.

For its part, Platypus may now take the case to civil court in an attempt to recover the funds it has stolen. However, the vast majority of the cryptos were lost by the two men as a result of clumsy operations on the blockchain.

8M when the hackers have already lost 6 or 7 by misconfiguring their smart contract. Good luck with that. He’s 22, probably has no assets apart from a bit of crypto” concluded the Parisian lawyer.

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