An Israeli national appeared in federal court in California to face charges alleging he stole nearly $2.9 million in cryptocurrency by exploiting a vulnerability in a decentralized finance network, federal prosecutors announced.
Alexander Gurevich, 49, made his initial court appearance in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California following his extradition from Israel, according to the Department of Justice. Israeli authorities arrested Gurevich in May 2025 based on a 2023 U.S. indictment.
Federal prosecutors allege that on or about August 1, 2022, Gurevich targeted the Nomad Bridge, a service operating self-executing software code known as a smart contract. According to court records, Gurevich executed four unauthorized transactions, extracting 103 Wrapped Bitcoin and 300 Wrapped Ether from Nomad’s digital wallet and transferring the funds into addresses under his direct control.
At the time of the transfer, the value of the stolen digital assets totaled approximately $2,894,390.
Investigators determined that Gurevich moved swiftly to conceal the trail of the stolen funds. He allegedly converted the tokens through a series of exchanges into other cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, and routed the balances through multiple digital wallets in an effort to obscure their ownership, origin, and location.
Gurevich faces charges of causing damage to a protected computer, interstate transportation of stolen money, and money laundering.
If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the computer damage charge, up to 10 years and a $250,000 fine for interstate transportation of stolen money, and up to 20 years and a $250,000 fine for money laundering.
The charges were announced by Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian for the Northern District of California, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Scott R. Schelble.
The FBI led the investigation with assistance from the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and law enforcement officials in Israel. Trial Attorneys Jessica Peck and Ethan Cantor of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section are prosecuting the case in coordination with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.
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