- Bitfinex cryptocurrency hack resulted in 120,000 Bitcoins being stolen.
- Ilya Lichtenstein used a series of sophisticated methods to hide the stolen funds from 2016 to 2022.
- He told his wife and a co-conspirator about the 2020 hack, who then helped him hide the stolen assets.
US prosecutors have told a judge that the mastermind behind the Bitfinex exchange hack should be sentenced to five years in prison.
Ilya Lichtenstein, who pleaded guilty last year to stealing 120,000 bitcoins, was arrested in 2022. His wife and co-conspirator, Heather Morgan, was also detained in connection with the 2016 Bitfinex cryptocurrency hack. During the arrest, police seized approximately $71 million worth of Bitcoin from the time of the hack.
According to Bloomberg, U.S. prosecutors submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that Lichtenstein should receive a longer sentence than Morgan, also known as rapper Razzlekhan.
Last week, federal prosecutors recommended that Morgan be sentenced to 18 months in prison, given that she received “significant assistance” in the case and that she did not know her husband had hacked Bitfinex.
Prosecutors argued that a stronger sentence for Lichtenstein would help deter younger cybercriminals from trying to do the same. According to them, this online activity is “normalized in a way that trivializes the impact on victims.”
Prosecutors believe that a higher sentence “will help break this vicious cycle.”
Full responsibility for hacking
Both men were initially believed to have been involved in the exchange hack, but Lichtenstein was identified as the primary person responsible.
It wasn’t until 2020 that Morgan discovered what her husband had done and admitted to helping him hide the stolen cryptocurrency. Following the hack, Liechtenstein moved approximately 120,000 bitcoins to a self-custodial wallet he controlled.
Over the next several years, he laundered the stolen funds through darknet markets, non-compliant cryptocurrency exchanges, and mixers and tumblers, including Bitcoin Fog, Helix, and ChipMixer, netting over 25,000 Bitcoin. has been withdrawn.
With Morgan’s help, the pair used the stolen funds to purchase non-fungible tokens (NFTs), gold, and Walmart gift cards.
Prosecutors did not pressure the judge to impose the maximum sentence because Lichtenstein had assisted in other criminal cases. For example, last February, Lichtenstein testified as a government witness in the money laundering trial against Bitcoin Fog.
The two are scheduled to be sentenced in November.