A federal judge on Friday declared a mistrial in the case of two Massachusetts Institute of Technology-educated brothers accused of stealing $25 million in cryptocurrency by exploiting the Ethereum blockchain in a 12-second scheme, reports Reuters.
U.S. District Judge Jessica Clarke in Manhattan dismissed the jury after it failed to reach a unanimous verdict on whether to convict or acquit Anton and James Peraire-Bueno of wire fraud and money laundering charges in what prosecutors called a first-of-its-kind crypto theft.
The mistrial was confirmed by William Fick, attorney for Anton Peraire-Bueno of the Boston firm Fick & Marx. A spokesperson for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton declined to comment.
Prosecutors said the brothers—graduates of MIT with degrees in computer science—used their technical expertise to design a “high-speed bait-and-switch” that manipulated transaction validation on the Ethereum network. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Nees told jurors in his October 15 opening statement that the defendants tampered with the software protocol known as MEV-boost, used by Ethereum validators to check and record new transactions.
“They planted a trade that looked like one thing from the outside but was secretly something else,” Nees said. “Then, just as the defendants planned, the victims took the bait.”
Defense attorney Katherine Trefz of Williams & Connolly, representing James Peraire-Bueno, argued that the brothers’ trading activity was innovative but lawful, describing it as “consistent with the principles at play in this highly competitive trading environment.”
The brothers were indicted in May 2024, before President Donald Trump’s administration took office and adopted what officials described as a more “crypto-friendly” regulatory stance. Despite that shift, prosecutors moved forward with the case, which has drawn attention for testing the limits of U.S. law in digital asset markets.
Bd-pratidin English/ Jisan
