U.S. Government Seeks Information About Victims Of December 2017 EtherDelta Hack

SAN FRANCISCO – The Office of the United States Attorney and the United States Secret Service have issued a call for victims of a December 2017 hack to come forward, announced Acting United States Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds and U.S. Secret Service (USSS) Special Agent in Charge James E. Anderson Jr.  The hack was perpetrated by Anthony Tyler Nashatka, a/k/a “psycho,” and a co-conspirator who were indicted in 2019 in connection with a scheme to defraud victims of at least $1.4 million in cryptocurrency; Nashatka and a codefendant were charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and other charges. Victims of the hack may provide information to the government about their losses by clicking here and filling out the questionnaire at the website.

The call for victims follows the August 13, 2019, indictment handed down by a federal grand jury.  According to the indictment, in December of 2017, Nashatka conspired with others to target cryptocurrency exchange platform EtherDelta to obtain the private keys and other information of hundreds of its users as part of a scheme to steal the users’ cryptocurrency.  The indictment further describes how Nashatka and his co-conspirators unlawfully used the identity of a victim to gain access to the platform’s domain name settings, caused the transmission of a command to divert users from the actual platform to a fake website, and fraudulently induced victims to input their cryptocurrency addresses and private keys into the fake website.  Between December 20 and 21, 2017, Nashatka and his co-conspirators logged the credentials of hundreds of victims, stole their cryptocurrency, and transferred approximately $600,000 in cryptocurrency to one cryptocurrency address controlled by Nashatka and his co-conspirators.  In addition, using this fraud scheme, Nashatka and his co-conspirators stole and additional $800,000 from a single victim on December 26, 2017.  The investigation to identify additional victims is continuing.  Nashatka and his codefendant each were charged with one count of the following crimes: conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030(b); transmission of a program, information, code, and command to cause damage to a protected computer, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1030(a)(5)(A), (c)(4)(B)(i) and (c)(4)(A)(i)(VI); unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain value, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1030(a)(4) and (c)(3)(A); conspiracy to commit wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1349; and aggravated identity theft, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028A(a)(1). 

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California and the USSS have posted the following message seeking information about users of the EtherDelta cryptocurrency platform between December 19, 2017, and December 21, 2017, who may have later suffered losses as a result of the scheme:

Anyone with questions or concerns about their EtherDelta account, including anyone who believes they are a victim, should fill out the questionnaire at this website https://go.usa.gov/xHCP2 and email it to SFO-EtherDelta@usss.dhs.gov.  The email should have “US v Gunton, et al” in the Subject Line.  All responses are voluntary, but complete responses would be useful to identify respondents as potential victims of the fraud scheme.  Based on the information provided, respondents may be contacted by the U.S. Secret Service and asked to provide additional information.

An indictment merely alleges that crimes have been committed, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.  The defendants face the following maximum statutory sentences:

The court also may order additional periods of supervised release, fines, and restitution for each violation.  However, any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553. 

This case is being prosecuted by the Special Prosecutions Section of the United States Attorney’s Office.  The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the United States Secret Service.