A 22-year-old Canadian accused of stealing millions from the DeFi platforms KyberSwap and Indexed Finance has disappeared from custody in Serbia, sparking concern across multiple countries.
After a globe-spanning manhunt and a stalled extradition process, authorities are now scrambling to track him down.
The accused, identified as Andean Medjedovic, has been charged with defrauding two decentralized finance protocols of $65 million has disappeared from Serbian custody following his arrest, according to court documents unsealed this week.
The case highlights just how tricky it is to police the decentralized finance world, where huge sums of money can vanish across borders in an instant, leaving victims and regulators chasing shadows.
For now, the suspect remains at large, underscoring the growing challenges of enforcing crypto laws globally.
Math genius turned fugitive
Andean Medjedovic, a Hamilton native who graduated with a master’s degree in pure mathematics at the age of 18, is facing accusations in many jurisdictions. Authorities said his present whereabouts are unclear.
According to the criminal charge, Medjedovic defrauded investors in two decentralised finance protocols out of around $65 million.
Medjedovic was apprehended in Belgrade in August 2024, capping a four-year evasion, before fleeing while authorities pursued extradition procedures.
Medjedovic’s case explained
The alleged saga started in October 2021, when Medjedovic was accused of exploiting Indexed Finance’s pools with borrowed crypto, reportedly siphoning off more than $16.5 million from unsuspecting investors.
The following year, he supposedly worked with an unspecified accomplice to launder the money, creating fake exchange accounts and using crypto mixers to leave a false trail behind him.
The biggest robbery occurred in November 2023, when Medjedovic supposedly used his programming prowess to rig KyberSwap’s code to influence the prices in the liquidity pools used by the exchange.
Court documents indicate that during this time, Medjedovic moved all over the world, crisscrossing Brazil, Dubai, Spain, Bosnia, and Serbia.
Finally, Medjedovic was arrested on August 9, 2024, in Belgrade, where he had rented an apartment under an assumed name, “Lorenzo.” Interpol Belgrade promptly notified their Dutch counterparts, a testament to the global nature of cybercrime in the world of cryptocurrency.
According to blockchain monitoring data, Medjedovic has vanished from Serbian custody as of this writing, and the $65 million that was stolen is still in Bitcoin wallets.
According to federal sentence standards, Medjedovic may spend more than ten years in jail if found guilty and refuses to comply by returning money and accepting responsibility.