Bitfinex hackers who had stolen billions of dollars in cryptocurrencies plead guilty. The biggest crypto hack to date.
Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, the couple who were arrested last year for hacking Bitfinex in 2016 involving billions of dollars of cryptocurrencies, pleaded guilty in court. Ilya Lichtenstein admitted to using several hacking tools and other advanced techniques to penetrate the exchange network. He then authorized 2,000 transactions to move 119,754 bitcoins to wallets they controlled. To cover his tracks, he says he deleted his access, logs and other digital evidence that could have betrayed him. Heather Morgan, his wife, helped him move and launder the stolen funds.
Bitfinex hackers who stole billions of dollars in cryptocurrencies plead guilty
If you remember, the Department of Justice (DOJ) had seized 95,000 stolen bitcoins at the time of their arrest. At that time, it represented no less than $3.6 billion, the largest financial seizure in the history of the agency. Authorities were able to recover more of the stolen funds later, amounting to an additional $475 million.
According to the DOJ, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan used fake identities to create online accounts in darknet and crypto exchange markets. They then withdrew the funds and distributed the bitcoins from there by converting them into other cryptocurrencies and keeping them in mixing services. By doing so, they were able to hide their provenance and make them more difficult to trace. The couple also created companies in the United States to make their banking activities appear legitimate. Heather Morgan had a TikTok account on which she said she had set up a “multi-million dollar company” with “zero external funding” and they also apparently used the stolen money to buy gold coins that Heather Morgan later buried.
The biggest crypto hack to date
To be exact, Ilya Lichtenstein pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and could spend up to 20 years in prison. For her part, Heather Morgan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States, two charges that can cost her up to five years in prison each.
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