The US Department of Justice said on Tuesday that $3.6 billion worth of Bitcoin was seized in connection with the 2016 crypto exchange Bitfinex hack. The suspects, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, who were detained in New York, appeared in court in the past hours. The two are accused of conspiracy to launder money and defraud the US government. Details are on Kriptokoin.com.
US government confiscates $3.6 billion worth of Bitcoin linked to 2016 crypto hack
According to The Washington Post report, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) confiscated $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency in 2016 due to the breach of the Bitfinex currency exchange. Authorities detained 34-year-old Ilya Lichtenstein and his 31-year-old wife, Heather Morgan, in New York after they tried to launder 119,754 Bitcoins stolen from the famous exchange. More than 2,000 illegal transactions were carried out by Lichtenstein and Morgan. They used the dark web to hide their tracks by using fake accounts.
The US Department of Justice shared in a press release:
According to court records, Lichtenstein and Morgan reportedly colluded to launder 119,754 Bitcoin revenues stolen from Bitfinex’s platform after a hacker broke into the company’s servers and performed more than 2,000 illegal transactions. The stolen Bitcoin was transferred to a crypto wallet controlled by Lichtenstein through these illegal transactions. About 25,000 stolen Bitcoins were moved from Lichtenstein’s wallet in the previous five years through a complex money laundering scheme that resulted in some of the stolen money being placed in financial accounts controlled by Lichtenstein and Morgan. The remaining stolen coins, totaling more than 94,000 BTC, were kept in the wallet used to receive and hold the illegal winnings.
Bitfinex will spend recovered BTCs for LEO token
Bitfinex exchange said in its statements:
We will contact the DOJ and follow the relevant legal processes to determine our rights regarding the return of stolen Bitcoin.
The exchange also stated that it will “use an amount equivalent to 80% of the net cash recovered to repurchase and burn the outstanding UNUS SED LEO tokens within 18 months of receiving such recovery:
These token buybacks can be obtained by buying UNUS SED LEO in open market transactions or directly over-the-counter transactions, including Bitcoin swapping for UNIS SED LEO.
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