Did any court case call sandwich attacks on regular buyers fraud or theft?

"Die Arbeit zeigt praxisnahe auf, inwieweit sich die jeweiligen Akteure im Rahmen eines MEV-Handels wegen Marktmanipulation und Insiderhandels strafbar machen."

"Misappropriation of Confidential or Inside information includes front-running a security trade made by a client of OMGXT."

"trading based on material, non-public information (for example, plans of market participants to significantly increase or decrease their holdings in bitcoin, new sources of demand for bitcoin, etc.) or based on the dissemination of false and misleading information"

"Front-running is taking a long or short position in a security with knowledge that the position or a similar position will soon be taken by a client."

"Front-running often has the effect of increasing the cost or decreasing the selling price of the position to a client."

"Mr. Gensler expressed concern about market manipulation: spoofing, front-running, phantom liquidity"

"Spot markets on which ether trades may be susceptible to front-running, which refers to the process when someone uses technology or market advantage to get prior knowledge of upcoming transactions."

"By using bots functioning on a millisecond-scale timeframe, bad actors are able to take advantage of the forthcoming price movement and make economic gains at the cost of those who had introduced these transactions."

"US District Judge Jessica Clarke denied a motion to dismiss by Anton and James Peraire-Bueno on Wednesday, stating the government adequately alleged their conduct met the criteria for fraud."

"The brothers were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to receive stolen property related to their role in using maximal extractable value (MEV) bots to exploit $25 million in digital assets in 2023."

"“Ladies and gentlemen, bait and switch is not a trading strategy,” said prosecutors on Tuesday, according to Inner City Press. “It is fraud. It is cheating. It is rigging the system. They pretended to be a legitimate MEV-Boost validator.”"

"In 2024, the MIT-educated brothers were accused of “attacking Ethereum” and stealing $25 million from three traders."

"whereby they exploited a vulnerability on the Ethereum network to steal $25 million of cryptocurrency from “victim traders.”"

"In a Monday filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, lawyers representing the US government requested a federal judge schedule a retrial for the Peraire-Bueno brothers “as soon as practicable in late February or early March 2026.”"

"In contrast, defense lawyers for the Peraire-Buenos pushed back against the US government’s theory of the two pretending to be “honest validators” to extract the funds, though the court ultimately allowed the argument to be presented to the jury."

"Prosecutors have charged Peraire-Bueno and his brother Anton Peraire-Bueno with wire fraud, as well as conspiracy to commit wire fraud, launder money, and receive stolen property."

"It also detailed how the brothers created a detailed four-step plan, “bait, block, search, and propagation,” and established 16 Ethereum validators using 529.5 ETH to execute the scheme using “lure transactions” to attract the bots."

"During that time, the jury asked several questions clarifying statements in testimony offered at trial, as well as the definition of “good faith.”"

"“This is like stealing a base in baseball,” said the defense team on Tuesday. “If there’s no fraud, there’s no conspiracy, there’s no money laundering.”"

"That allowed the brothers to “tamper” with the block, changing the bait transaction from a purchase into a sell order, according to their indictment."

"The brothers argued that the wire fraud statute did not provide fair notice that their conduct was criminal since their actions were “permitted by the system’s code.”"

"In the brothers’ case, they allegedly used MEV bots to “trick” users into trades. The exploit, though planned by the two for months, reportedly took just 12 seconds to net the pair $25 million."

"Prosecutors argued switching the bait transaction from a purchase to a sale was a deception, as was the brothers’ use of a so-called invalid signature — the move that tricked MEV-boost into revealing the contents of the block that contained the bots’ orders."

"The charges against the brothers stemmed from allegations that they used MEV bots to extract about $25 million in crypto from the Ethereum blockchain in 2023."

"the wire fraud statute provided defendants with adequate notice that their alleged conduct was criminal, despite any novel means used by defendants,"

"“I don’t think what’s in the indictment constitutes wire fraud,” said Carl Volz, a partner at law firm Gunnercooke, in a Monday op-ed for DLNews."

"The bait transactions were designed to lure those specific bots, according to the prosecutor. At trial, the bots’ owners said they would not have allowed the programmes to execute those fateful transactions had they known what would happen next."

"The prosecutors’ theory of the case, presented to the jury, was that the two individuals had “tricked” the system by presenting themselves as “honest validators” on the blockchain."

"Mostly memecoin buyers on Pump.fun. Some are bots themselves, such as snipers, and their trades paid 39% of what the sandwich bots took."

"the jury could find the brothers not guilty on at least one of the charges for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to receive stolen property."

"A sandwich bot cannot touch your wallet. It only makes your trade fill at a worse price, within the slippage you allowed."