Mistrial declared for MIT brothers accused of swindling $25M

A jury failed to reach a verdict in the alleged fraud trial of two MIT graduates accused of stealing $25 million worth of cryptocurrency in 12 seconds, leading a judge to declare a mistrial.

After three days of deliberations, jurors told District Judge Jessica Clarke they couldn’t agree on whether brothers James and Anton Peraire-Bueno’s actions amounted to theft or fair play in an unregulated crypto market. 

The two were accused of manipulating Ethereum blockchain trades through “sandwich attacks,” a controversial practice involving automated bots that place buy and sell orders around a person’s order, manipulating the price.

According to the testimony, the brothers used their own bots to confuse the users’ bots and defrauded them of $25 million. The two accused argued that since the market is unregulated,  the ruse was fair game.

Jurors described emotional distress, sleepless nights, and several breakdowns during deliberations. 

The mistrial marks a setback for prosecutors trying to establish clearer legal boundaries in crypto trading. 

The Peraire-Bueno family and supporters reacted emotionally in court, while the crypto community remained divided—some viewed the brothers’ actions as justified retaliation against exploitative traders. 

Prosecutors said they will decide later whether to seek a retrial.

Not the first
Prior to this case, there have been two other crypto-related lawsuits in federal courts in Manhattan this year, which the DOJ lost.

In May, a federal judge overturned the wire fraud conviction of crypto trader Avraham “Avi” Eisenberg, who was accused of swindling $110 million. Then in August, a Manhattan jury deadlocked over whether Tornado Cash CEO Roman Storm was guilty of laundering $1 billion in illicit cryptocurrency.