According to (Bloomberg) reports, “cryptocurrency thief” Ilya Lichtenstein, who hacked into Bitfinex and stole nearly 120,000 bitcoins in 2016, was sentenced to 5 years in prison for money laundering and other crimes.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) uncovered the cryptocurrency theft case in February 2022 and arrested Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan on suspicion of "conspiracy to launder money" and "defraud the U.S. government."
The two crimes Ilya Lichtenstein was charged with have maximum sentences of 20 years and 5 years respectively. However, the prosecutor considered that he actively cooperated with investigations in many cases, including providing policies in the case of Bitcoin mixing service Bitcoin Fog, so it was recommended to start from Light sentence.
Heather Morgan's sentencing is expected to be handed down on November 18, with prosecutors recommending a lighter sentence of 18 months due to her minor role in the case.
The 119,756 Bitcoins stolen from Bitfinex were worth approximately $72 million at the time of the theft, but have now appreciated to $10.7 billion.
The pair of "mandarin duck thieves" were accused of using currency mixing services, chain hopping technology (Chain Hopping), automated transactions, darknet markets and other techniques to launder this huge sum of money, becoming the largest asset seizure case so far by the U.S. Department of Justice. However, the two men were never charged for launching the hacking attack.
"Nearly 120,000 Bitcoins were hacked 8 years ago! The "Bitfinex Thief" was sentenced to 5 years in prison for money laundering." This article was first published on (Block Guest).
