US prosecutors urge decide at hand Bitfinex hack mastermind five-year sentence

• The Bitfinex crypto hack resulted within the theft of 120,000 Bitcoin
• Ilya Lichtenstein used a collection of refined strategies to cover the stolen funds between 2016 and 2022
• He informed his spouse and co-conspirator in regards to the hack in 2020 who then helped him to cover the stolen property

US prosecutors have informed a decide that the mastermind behind the Bitfinex trade hack ought to obtain 5 years in jail.

Ilya Lichtenstein, who pleaded responsible final yr after stealing 120,000 Bitcoin, was arrested in 2022. His spouse and co-conspirator Heather Morgan was additionally taken into custody, in connection to the 2016 Bitfinex crypto hack. Throughout their arrest, police seized Bitcoin price round $71 million on the time of the hack.

In line with Bloomberg, a courtroom submitting was submitted to the US District Courtroom of Columbia, US prosecutors say Lichtenstein ought to obtain an extended sentence than Morgan, also referred to as rapper Razzlekhan.

Final week, federal prosecutors advisable that Morgan obtain an 18-month jail sentence given her “substantial help” within the case and the truth that she didn’t know her husband had hacked into Bitfinex.

Prosecutors argued {that a} stronger sentence for Lichtenstein would assist deter younger cybercriminals from making an attempt the identical factor. In line with them, this on-line exercise is “normalized in a method that trivializes the influence on the victims.”

By giving a harder sentence, prosecutors imagine it is going to “assist to interrupt this cycle.”

Sole accountability for the hack

Whereas it was initially believed that each of them have been concerned within the trade’s hack, Lichtenstein was recognized as the first individual accountable.

It was solely in 2020 that Morgan came upon about what her husband had completed and admitted to serving to him disguise the stolen crypto. Following the hack, Lichtenstein transferred round 120,000 Bitcoin right into a self-custody pockets beneath his management.

Over the following few years, he withdrew 25,000 Bitcoin, laundering the stolen funds by darknet markets, non-compliant digital foreign money exchanges, and mixers and tumblers, together with Bitcoin Fog, Helix, and ChipMixer.

With Morgan’s assist, the pair used the stolen funds to purchase nonfungible tokens (NFTs), gold, and Walmart reward playing cards.

Prosecutors haven’t pushed the decide to offer Lichtenstein the utmost sentence attributable to his help in different legal circumstances. As an illustration, in February, Lichtenstein testified as a authorities witness in a money-laundering trial in opposition to Bitcoin Fog.

The pair are scheduled to be sentenced in November.