- US prosecutors urge the court docket for a five-year jail for Ilya Lichtenstein, the mastermind of the $6B Bitfinex hack.
- Lichtenstein represents a troubling sample amongst younger cyber criminals who normalize their on-line offenses.
- Heather Morgan, Lichtenstein’s spouse, is predicted to face a jail sentence of 18 months.
US prosecutors have advisable a five-year jail sentence for Ilya Lichtenstein, who pleaded responsible to a money-laundering conspiracy associated to the $6 billion Bitfinex hack. They imagine Lichtenstein displays a troubling sample amongst younger cyber criminals who normalize their on-line offenses and underestimate the hurt inflicted on their victims, in response to a Bloomberg report printed at the moment.
In a federal court docket in Washington, the prosecutors are pushing for “a robust sentence” for Lichtenstein to discourage crypto crime. This comes after a court docket submitting final week that advisable Lichtenstein’s spouse and co-conspirator, Heather Morgan, serve 18 months in jail. In a court docket submitting on Tuesday, the prosecutors argued that Lichtenstein, the mastermind behind one of many largest cryptocurrency thefts in historical past, ought to spend extra time in jail.
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Lichtenstein admitted to orchestrating the $4.5 billion cyberattack on Bitfinex, a cryptocurrency alternate owned and operated by iFinex Inc. The couple carried out the plan in 2016, however authorities didn’t arrest them till 2022 for conspiracy and cash laundering fees. Authorities seized $3.6 billion from the couple, and U.S. Deputy Lawyer Common Lisa Monaco described it because the “division’s largest monetary seizure ever.”
The federal government recognized Lichtenstein as the primary perpetrator of the Bitfinex hack. He laundered the stolen funds with the help of his spouse, rapper Razzlekhan. Heather Morgan admitted to serving to her husband conceal the illicit cryptocurrency even after discovering his involvement within the hack in 2020.
Whereas prosecutors are asking the court docket to impose a major sentence for Lichtenstein, they aren’t looking for the utmost penalty on account of his cooperation within the investigation. The couple is scheduled to be sentenced in November 2024.
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