“Operation size is enormous … $6 million on the contract. Large end if you trap them all at once and could be way higher.”
According to Chen, the plan involved submitting eight carefully designed “bait” transactions that would attract sandwich bots to take specific trading positions. Once those bots reacted, the brothers sprung their trap, exploiting the flaw to capture the bots’ funds.
Prosecutors say the scheme — executed on April 2, 2023 — netted the conspirators roughly $25 million, which they then laundered through “hundreds upon hundreds” of transfers and swaps to conceal the source of the proceeds.
Flashbots’ Response and the Aftermath
Robert Miller, a product developer at Flashbots, which created the MEV-Boost software, testified earlier Friday about the technical impact of the exploit. He described how the incident — now known as “Omakase” — exposed a critical vulnerability that caused widespread losses for users across the Ethereum ecosystem.
Miller said Flashbots patched the flaw within 24 hours, but noted that the alleged perpetrators later contacted him anonymously, asking that he avoid calling the event an “exploit.” They offered to share information about a similar trading strategy if he softened the terminology in public discussions.
