Infamous Crypto Hacker Behind Nearly $11,000,000,000 Bitfinex Exploit Sentenced to Five Years in Prison

The notorious hacker behind the huge $10.934 billion exploit of crypto alternate Bitfinex has been sentenced to 5 years in jail.

In response to a brand new one press release The US Division of Justice (DOJ) has sentenced Ilya Lichtenstein – who hacked Bitfinex in 2016 and fraudulently despatched 119,754 Bitcoin (BTC) to a pockets below his management – to 5 years for his position within the scheme.

Courtroom paperwork present that after the exploit, Lichtenstein took steps to cowl his tracks, similar to deleting key Bitfinex recordsdata that would have helped police establish him. Furthermore, he requested his spouse to assist him launder the stolen cash.

Lichtenstein and his spouse, Heather Morgan, used subtle cash laundering strategies – together with depositing and withdrawing funds out and in of the darknet and cryptocurrency alternate, changing the BTC into different types of digital belongings and utilizing crypto mixing companies – to cowl up the funds. to the DOJ.

Lichtenstein and his spouse each pleaded responsible on August 3, 2023, to 1 rely of conspiracy to commit cash laundering. Whereas Morgan will probably be sentenced on November 18, Liechtenstein will serve his time period plus three years of supervised launch.

Earlier this month, Morgan stated in her sentencing memo that she was “fully shocked” when her husband instructed her concerning the hack 4 years later. In response to Morgan, she felt complicit and helped him cowl his tracks as a result of she had beforehand accepted stolen crypto from him.

“In 2020 I heard that my husband Ilya Lichtenstein dedicated a severe crime in 2016. When he instructed me what he had accomplished, I used to be fully shocked. I made the dangerous choice to become involved in Ilya’s crime. Our relationship was removed from good, however I like and care about my husband very a lot. The reality is, I did not need him to go to jail as a result of we had been planning on beginning a household collectively.”

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