London’s Wood Green Crown Court has sentenced Canadian national Jarett Dunn. The former employee of the popular platform Pump.fun will spend six years behind bars for stealing assets worth $2 M.
Dunn pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position, despite his defense team’s earlier attempts to deny the charges.
The incident occurred over a year ago when Pump.fun was just gaining momentum. Dunn, who held the position of senior developer, exploited his system access to withdraw funds in SOL. He did not keep the money but distributed it to thousands of random wallet addresses, sparking a “crypto Robin Hood” cult on social media. Immediately after the attack, the programmer posted on X, publicly confessing to the act and stating he wanted to “kill” the project.
Defense Arguments Fall Flat
In court, Dunn attempted to justify his actions by claiming whistleblower status. He argued that Pump.fun was a malicious site and the attack served as a warning to the public. The judge showed no sympathy for this narrative.
Mark Kelly, a friend of the convict present at the hearing, reported that the prosecution dismissed this defense line as “post-arrest spin.” According to Kelly, Dunn’s live confessions on X Spaces—where he stated his intention to harm the company simply because “it’s something to do”—became a gift to the prosecution. The court weighed these statements heavily in its final decision.
The judge handed Dunn two six-year sentences to be served concurrently. The 308 days spent under electronic monitoring and five months of pre-trial detention count toward his term.
Context
At the time of the hack, Dunn had worked at the company for only six weeks. Back then, the protocol’s total lifetime revenue was a modest $43.9 M. Pump.fun has since evolved into a fee generator with nearly $1 B in revenue, establishing itself as a key platform for launching meme coins on the Solana blockchain.
The legal proceedings were chaotic. Police arrested Dunn at a London hotel four days after the hack. He was later hospitalized due to mental health issues. In August 2024, he pleaded guilty, only to attempt to withdraw the plea later, changing his legal team and violating bail conditions.
The developer is currently held in HMP Pentonville. His hopes for immediate deportation to Canada did not materialize, and he will serve his sentence in the UK.
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