Puerto Rico investor sues Coinbase over $55M DAI theft
A Puerto Rico investor sued Coinbase in San Francisco federal court seeking return of DAI frozen after investigators traced the tokens to a $55 million DeFi Saver phishing theft.
A Puerto Rico investor filed a lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco asking a judge to declare him the owner of DAI stablecoins frozen at Coinbase and order the exchange to return the funds. Investigators traced the tokens to a $55 million phishing theft tied to a DeFi Saver login in August 2024.
The complaint alleges a hacker used a malicious link to a fake DeFi Saver login to access the victim’s account and drain roughly $55 million in DAI. The suit names an unknown John Doe as the alleged thief and says part of the stolen funds were laundered through the crypto mixer Tornado Cash before being deposited into a Coinbase retail user account, where the assets remain frozen.
The plaintiff hired crypto analytics firms Zero Shadow and Five Stones Intelligence to trace the stolen assets. Those firms reported links between the laundered funds and Ukrainian citizen Okelsiy Oleksandrovych Gorelikhin, according to the filing. Zero Shadow notified Coinbase on Nov. 30, 2024 that funds tied to the theft had been deposited into a Coinbase address and asked the exchange to investigate and freeze the assets.
The complaint says Coinbase confirmed on Dec. 2, 2024 that the address belonged to a Coinbase retail user and that the company implemented “friction measures” to prevent the funds from being moved. The filing describes the frozen DAI as “identifiable property traceable to Plaintiff’s stolen assets” and states the plaintiff has repeatedly demanded return of the funds. The suit says Coinbase has “acknowledged” holding the traced funds but has indicated a court order adjudicating ownership is required before release.
The complaint describes the technical method used in the heist as the Inferno Drainer platform, a scam-as-a-service tool that lets attackers build wallet-draining decentralized applications without exploiting protocol code. Security firms reported a rise in Inferno Drainer use in 2024, from about 800 malicious dApps at the start of the year to more than 2,400 by year end.
The court filing notes the plaintiff notified law enforcement and seeks a judicial declaration of ownership and return of the frozen DAI. If the court rules for the plaintiff, the suit asks the judge to order Coinbase to transfer the traced funds back to the investor.
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