Sam Curry, a bug bounty hunter and security engineer at Yuga Labs, is being investigated by US federal agencies over a crypto phishing website that stole millions of dollars from users.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and IRS Criminal Investigation held Sam at an undisclosed US airport and directed him to a secondary inspection room while he was returning from Japan.
“I assumed it was just a random selection, so I’d given my unlocked device to the inspecting officer,” Sam said on a Twitter (X) post, adding, “but then watched as it was passed to the DHS and IRS-CI agents who were investigating the money laundering, conspiracy, and wire fraud charges.”
Federal agents presented Sam before the Grand Jury with a subpoena from the Court of the Southern District of New York, which requires him to appear at the court and testify for wire fraud. Sam was asked several questions regarding a high profile phishing campaign that involves finding his IP address as a threat.
After Sam’s lawyer contacted the federal agents, the security engineer came to know that he was held for accused involvement in a phishing scam in December 2022.
Sam clarified in the Twitter post that he helped in investigating the scam. He found a private key for the scammer’s wallet, which he imported into a personal device in order to check the stolen assets. He said, “When I did this, I was on my home IP address and obviously not attempting to conceal my identity as I was simply investigating this.”
However, the subpoena has been completely dismissed by the court hours after confirming his identity as a security engineer. “It’s odd to me that they didn’t see I work as a security engineer who responds to these things regularly,” Sam said.
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