The CEO of Savannah Technologies took the stand Monday in a trial that’s shaking the digital finance world — a courtroom showdown blending high-stakes crypto, academic genius, and digital deception. At the heart of it: a $25 million crypto heist that prosecutors say was engineered by two MIT-educated brothers, Anton and James Peraire-Bueno, using a flaw deep within the Ethereum blockchain.
The Savannah $25M Crypto Heist has captivated jurors with tales of bots, blockchain bugs, and blurred ethics — and a fierce debate over whether “sandwich trading” is clever strategy or legalized manipulation.
A Morning of Panic and Missing Millions
Savannah CEO David Yakira recalled the morning of April 2023 when he awoke to a torrent of messages: his company had just suffered a multimillion-dollar loss. The culprit, investigators later alleged, was an elaborate digital ambush by the Peraire-Bueno brothers, who had exploited an Ethereum software vulnerability to siphon $25 million from Savannah and other crypto trading firms.
The brothers allegedly operated under a trading outfit named 18decimal — known internally as “Omakase” — and used their deep understanding of blockchain mechanics to turn the tables on sandwich traders like Savannah.
