The New York couple accused of transferring more than $4.5 billion in Bitcoin from the Bitfinex platform hack in 2016 have reached a plea agreement with US justice, which could reduce the expected sentence of 25 years in prison. The identity of the hacker remains, despite everything, still unknown 8 years after the facts.
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Endgame for Bitfinex Thieves
The New York couple accused of having transferred over $4.5 billion worth of Bitcoin following the hack of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange in 2016 entered into a plea deal with justice, according to a court order.
Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan have not been accused by the courts of having perpetrated the Bitfinex hack per se, but of having transferred the approximately 119,756 BTC stolen at the time through more than 2,000 transactionsas was again stated by the court:
“The object of the conspiracy for the defendants, Morgan and Lichtenstein, was to enrich themselves unlawfully by laundering the proceeds of the hack and fraud of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange, and to prevent detection of the laundering activity. »
However, thanks to the transparency of the blockchain, the vast majority of Bitcoins could be traced and ended up leading to the 2 individuals now facing American justice. These BTC being among the most watched in the world, it was impossible for the couple to transfer them to a crypto exchange in order to obtain fiat currency, although they had time to launder around 25,000 shortly after the fact.
The couple had then been arrested in February 2022, when US federal authorities had just seized 94,643 Bitcoin, or 3.6 billion dollars at the time. Ilya Lichtenstein then presented health concerns, the latter had been released on bail. The file had also been deemed “less solid” concerning her, although she has since decided to cooperate.
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A case still unsolved
8 years later, we still don’t know the identity of the Bitfinex hacker, although the case has become one of the most famous in the ecosystem. In 2016, the amount of the operation was around 71 million dollars, since Bitcoin was still much lower in price than today.
The man was described as a computer developer ” preferring the manufacture of computer circuits to social relations while his wife was more outgoing. Through articles written for Forbes, the latter presented herself as an expert in the fight against cybercrime.
Upon their arrest, the 2 individuals as well as their lawyers had made it known that they would fight the charges they were facing, claiming that there was ” numerous gaps in the government’s evidence and unsubstantiated conclusive jumps in the proceedings initiated by the courts. A beginning of advocacy had however been engaged the following month.
We don’t yet know what the couple’s possible sentence might be as part of this plea deal. Last year they were charged with 2 counts of conspiracy, which corresponded to a 25-year prison sentence.
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Source: Wall Street Journal
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Passionate about the world of decentralized finance and the novelties brought by Web 3.0, I write articles for Cryptoast to help make blockchain more accessible to everyone. Convinced that cryptocurrencies will change the future very soon.
Maximilien Prue
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