Illustrative photo from open sources
A US court has sentenced 35-year-old hacker Ilya Lichtenstein to five years in prison for participating in a conspiracy to launder money obtained from the hack of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange in 2016 and the theft of about 120,000 bitcoins.
It was one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in history: at the time, the value of the stolen bitcoins was around $70 million, but by the time Lichtenstein was arrested, it had grown to $4.5 billion and is worth over $10 billion today.
According to court documents, Lichtenstein hacked into the Bitfinex network using hacking tools and fraudulently processed more than 2,000 transactions, transferring almost 120,000 bitcoins to his crypto wallet. To cover his tracks, he deleted credentials and log files from Bitfinex’s systems that could have exposed his actions to law enforcement.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000The press release from the Ministry of Justice said that after the theft, Lichtenstein, with the help of his wife Heather Morgan, used a variety of sophisticated money laundering tactics. They created fictitious identities for online accounts, used computer programs to automate transactions, converted bitcoin into other cryptocurrencies, and used so-called bitcoin mixers to make the transactions more difficult to track. Some of the funds were siphoned off through darknet markets, legitimate business accounts, and even converted into gold coins.
In August 2023, Lichtenstein and Morgan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. Lichtenstein's sentence includes three years of supervised release after serving his prison term. Morgan's sentencing is scheduled for November 18.
The U.S. government confiscated about 95,000 bitcoins that were in the defendants' crypto wallets. Federal rules of criminal procedure allow third parties to make claims on confiscated assets.
Prepared by: Sergey Daga