21-Year-Old Man Admits to Stealing Crypto Worth IDR 591 Billion from 571 Victims

Liputan6.com, Jakarta – A 21-year-old man named Evan Frederick Light pleaded guilty to stealing cryptocurrency worth USD 37,704,560 or around Rp. 591 billion from 571 victims in a 2022 cyber attack.

According to an announcement from the US Department of Justice, Light stole crypto from an unnamed investment holding company headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

In the Statement of Facts obtained by Bleeping Computerquoted Monday (7/10/2024), the man from Indiana, USA, said that he and his co-conspirators stole the identities of the company’s legitimate clients to gain access to the company’s servers.

They then exploit the vulnerability to spread further into the network. Using this access, Light said they stole the company’s clients’ personal information, which was then used to steal their cryptocurrency.

“After successfully accessing the investment company’s computer server, my co-conspirator or I then stole the Protected Personal Information (PII) of hundreds of other clients from that server, along with one or more individuals,” the Statement of Facts reads.

“I ultimately used this access to steal virtual currency from clients who held those assets at the investment company,” he continued.

In total, Light said he stole IDR 591 million worth of cryptocurrency from 571 victims and then transferred it to various coin mixing services and gambling websites to obscure traces of assets and hide his true identity.