Pump.fun Former developer sentenced to six years in prison for $2 million fraud case

According to ME News, on December 18 (UTC+8), Canadian citizen Jarett Dunn was sentenced to six years in prison by a London judge for a $2 million Solana fraud case. He had previously pleaded guilty to abuse of power fraud and transfer of criminal property. The court stated that the former Pump.fun employee had been under electronic tagging for 308 days, 154 of which would count towards his sentence. He was also remanded in custody for approximately five months, which typically counts automatically towards his sentence. This sentencing comes more than a year after Dunn stole approximately $2 million worth of Solana (SOL) from Pump.fun, where he was then employed (a now very popular Meme coin platform). Instead of keeping the money for himself, Dunn distributed the funds to thousands of random addresses. He then immediately confessed to the crime on social media. As a result, the Canadian gained a large following, with fans calling him the "Crypto Robin Hood." Dunn's sentencing process was not smooth, with multiple postponements and adjourns. This included Dunn's attempt to characterize the attack as a whistleblower action, claiming Pump.fun was a malicious website and that he was trying to warn people about it. However, with the verdict, the judge appeared to disagree with this argument. Pump.fun is a platform that allows anyone to create cryptocurrency tokens in seconds after filling out a short form. Before the incident, Dunn had been a senior developer at Pump.fun for six weeks, during which time the platform, while popular, was still in its early stages. According to Dune data, Pump.fun's cumulative revenue at the time was $43.9 million, a figure that has since soared to $927.2 million. Dunn's friend, Mark Kelly, who attended the trial, called the verdict "frustrating." Kelly told Decrypt that prosecutors dismissed the whistleblower's claims as "post-arrest rhetoric." He added that while he thought Dunn's lawyers were "terrible," Dunn ultimately allowed the prosecution to "get away with it easily" due to his confessions on social media. “Everyone calm down, this is a robbery… I’m about to change the course of history. Then go to jail and rot,” Dunn posted on the X platform minutes after the attack. “Am I sane? No. Am I okay? Very bad.” He then joined an X Spaces group, stating he wanted to “kill” Pump.fun “because it’s something to do.” He further claimed, “It unintentionally hurt people for a long time.” Kelly added that the judge “fully considered” this in his sentencing. Four days after the attack, Dunn was arrested at a London hotel not far from the WeWork office that Pump.fun operated, where he was during the attack. Dunn was immediately deemed unfit for police questioning and spent two weeks in hospital to improve his mental health. (Source: ME)