• 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 belongings

US prosecutors have informed a choose that the mastermind behind the Bitfinex alternate 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 response to 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, often known as rapper Razzlekhan.

Final week, federal prosecutors really useful that Morgan obtain an 18-month jail sentence given her “substantial assistance” 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 response to them, this on-line exercise is “normalized in a way that trivializes the impact on the victims.”

By giving a harder sentence, prosecutors imagine it should “help to break this cycle.”

Sole accountability for the hack

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

It was solely in 2020 that Morgan came upon about what her husband had carried out 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 forex 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 choose to provide Lichtenstein the utmost sentence attributable to his help in different felony instances. As an example, in February, Lichtenstein testified as a authorities witness in a money-laundering trial towards Bitcoin Fog.

The pair are scheduled to be sentenced in November.