Bitfinex Heist: Ilya Lichtenstein Admits He Was Behind the Colossal Crypto Exchange Hack of 2016
Notorious “crypto couple” Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan on Thursday pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy in connection with the massive 2016 crypto exchange Bitfinex hack.
Lichtenstein also managed to execute the hack himself, clearing up years of mysteries about how the pair first obtained stolen bitcoin (BTC) from Bitfinex.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) says Lichtenstein used “a number of advanced hacking tools and techniques” to breach Bitfinex’s network and fraudulently authorize more than 2,000 transactions. In total, he transferred 119,754 BTC, which at the time of writing was worth a whopping $3.5 billion, to a wallet he controls.
After securing the stolen bitcoins, Lichtenstein and Morgan used a number of complex strategies to cover up their digital paper trails, according to the DOJ.
According to the Justice Department, the pair sent the cryptocurrency to dark web markets and mixers, used fake identities, tapped into US-based business accounts to legitimize their banking operations, and exchanged some of the stolen BTC for gold coins Morgan buried.
Lichtenstein pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to launder money, and Morgan pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to launder money and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. He faces up to 20 years in prison and she faces up to 10 years.
Morgan is a former Forbes columnist and executive copywriter. She is also an idiosyncratic YouTube rapper known as “Razzlekhan”.
Lichtenstein, who also goes by the name “Dutch”, describes himself on LinkedIn as a “technology entrepreneur, programmer and investor”.
Hulu is reportedly developing a limited television series about the couple, called Razzlekhan: The Notorious Crocodile of Wall Street.
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