Bitfinex Hacker Sentenced Five Years for $10 Billion Bitcoin Heist

Ilya Lichtenstein, a hacker in the back of one among historical previous’s finest cryptocurrency thefts, received a 5-one year penal complex sentence.

In 2016, he orchestrated the theft of 119,754 Bitcoin from Bitfinex by authorizing 2,000 untrue transactions. He later teamed up along with his wife, Heather Morgan, to launder the stolen funds.

$10 Billion in Stolen Bitcoin

The couple pleaded guilty on August 3, 2023, to conspiracy charges tied to cash laundering. The court will later sentence Morgan on November 18, and Lichtenstein will wait on three extra years of supervised open after his imprisonment.

The Bitfinex heist, firstly valued at $71 million, grew to alter into one among the glorious cybercrimes ever as Bitcoin’s rate skyrocketed. To crack the case, the IRS-Prison Investigations unit, FBI, Fatherland Safety, and blockchain forensics firm TRM Labs worked collectively for seven years.

“This day he counseled a jury that he had fetch right of entry to to Bitfinex’s systems for a entire lot of months, and also hacked accounts at a range of exchanges, for instance Coinbase and Kraken. One of the most crucial stolen cash went to purchase non-fungible tokens, gold, Walmart gift playing cards, shrooms and LSD,” one X person chimed in.

Lichtenstein’s methodology, which worn darknet markets, a range of exchanges, coin mixers, and a range of ways, allowed him to quilt his tracks for years efficiently. It used to be glorious in 2022 that authorities had been by hook or by crook able to grab a single wallet with 94,000 BTC, which prompted extra investigations that published gold coins, bodily gold, and USD.

Some have dubbed him a “mastermind hacker” for his sophisticated course of. In March, producers announced a Hollywood film about Lichtenstein and Morgan is in production.

Bloomberg stories that the US executive carried out its glorious cryptocurrency restoration to this level by seizing Lichtenstein’s stolen sources. Despite going via a doable 25-one year sentence, he later received fundamental leniency for cooperating with authorities and testifying in a range of cryptocurrency cases, collectively with Bitcoin Fog.

Bitcoin Fog and Its Role in the Heist

It used to be glorious on November 8 that Roman Sterlingov, the founding father of Bitcoin Fog, used to be sentenced to 12 years for working the identical tool that enabled Lichtenstein to drag off the Bitfinex heist.

Bitcoin Fog, a darknet coin mixer, performed a fundamental role in Lichtenstein’s draw to launder funds. Coin mixers imprecise transaction trails by mixing a pair of transfers, making them no longer easy to label. A huge instance of right here is Tornado Cash.

The DoJ press open states that Sterlingov knowingly worn his tool to wait on launder funds from a range of unlawful activities.

“As proven at trial, Roman Sterlingov created and worn an web tool to course of a total bunch of millions in unlawful transactions, enabling darknet drug sellers and americans that promote child sexual abuse cloth, to characteristic. This day’s sentence sends an unmistakable message: those that wait on criminals with online funds for their unlawful activities will face severe penalties,” talked about US Authorized skilled Graves.

Sterlingov used to be sentenced to penal complex and ordered to pay an attractive of $395.6 million. He also had to offer up seized cryptocurrencies and cash rate about $1.76 million. Additionally, he lost ownership of his Bitcoin Fog wallet, which holds around 1,345 Bitcoins valued at over $103 million.

Bitcoin Fog operated for ten years, processing over 1.2 million Bitcoin transactions rate about $400 million. Most funds originated from darknet markets and supported a range of unlawful activities.

In March 2024, a jury convicted Sterlingov of cash laundering, conspiracy, and dealing an unlicensed cash transmission alternate after a month-prolonged trial.