04/01/2026

Maryland Man Charged With Defrauding Crypto Exchange Of Over $50 Million In Hacks

United States Attorney's Office Southern District of New York

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, and Kevin Murphy, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) San Diego, announced the unsealing of an Indictment charging JONATHAN SPALLETTA, a/k/a “Cthulhon,” a/k/a “Jspalletta,” with computer fraud and money laundering in connection with his hacks of the decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Uranium Finance (“Uranium”).  SPALLETTA surrendered today and will be presented this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang.  The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff.

“As alleged, Jonathan Spalletta repeatedly hacked smart contracts to steal millions of dollars’ worth of other people’s money for himself, and destroyed a cryptocurrency exchange in the process,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton.  “In describing his alleged ‘heist,’ Spalletta told another individual ‘Crypto is just fake internet money anyway.’  Stealing from a crypto exchange is stealing—the claim that ‘crypto is different’ does not change that.  For the victims, there is nothing different about having your money taken.  Spalletta cost real victims real losses of tens of millions of dollars, and now he’s under real arrest.”

“This indictment demonstrates HSI’s commitment to protecting the integrity of financial systems and holding cybercriminals accountable, regardless of the complexity or novelty of their schemes,” said HSI Acting Special Agent in Charge Kevin Murphy.  “HSI will continue to aggressively pursue those who exploit vulnerabilities in emerging technologies for personal gain and ensure that justice is served for victims of these crimes.”

As alleged in the Indictment:[1]

Uranium was a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange that allowed users to deposit and exchange different kinds of cryptocurrencies via liquidity pools.  In April 2021, SPALLETTA committed two separate hacks of Uranium.