Israeli authorities have detained a hacker of the Nomad protocol

What’s new? Israeli authorities have arrested a suspect in the hacking of the Nomad cryptocurrency protocol. Alexander Gurevich, who holds Israeli and Russian citizenship, was taken into custody on May 1 at Ben Gurion Airport before boarding a flight to Russia. Authorities said he had legally changed his name and obtained a new passport the day before his arrest. He is accused of stealing digital assets from a US crypto company and then attempting extortion.

Material by Jerusalem Post

What else is known? The US Attorney’s Office alleges that Gurevich carried out an exploit of the Nomad blockchain platform on August 1, 2022, and withdrew about $2,89 million in cryptocurrency. Later, other attackers also exploited the vulnerability in the platform, resulting in a total loss of about $190 million.

After the incident, Gurevich allegedly contacted Nomad’s tech director via encrypted messaging apps, admitted to the theft, and transferred back about $162 000 in stolen tokens.

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In doing so, he requested a $500 000 reward in exchange for details about how he discovered the vulnerability. When the company offered a smaller sum equivalent to 10% of the hack, Gurevich stopped communicating and disappeared.

The San Francisco office of the FBI later launched a criminal investigation that resulted in an eight-count indictment in August 2023 in the Northern District of California. It includes fraud, money laundering, and transportation of stolen property. Gurevich could face up to 20 years in prison.

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He returned to Israel on April 19, and authorities immediately ordered him to appear for an extradition hearing. However, Gurevich ignored the summons and legally changed his name to “Alexander Block.” He subsequently obtained a new passport and attempted to flee to Russia.

On May 2, the Israeli prosecutor’s office filed a formal motion to declare him extraditable to the United States. Gurevich will remain in custody until the scheduled hearing.

Because Gurevich was not residing in Israel at the time of the alleged offenses, it is unlikely that he would serve his sentence in Israel if convicted abroad.