Bitfinex Hacker Gets 5 Years in Prison
Date: 2024-11-15 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: BUSINESS
Ilya Lichtenstein, who was involved in the theft of billions of dollars in bitcoins from the Bitfinex crypto exchange in 2016, has been sentenced to five years in prison. The ruling was handed down by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington, D.C., on November 14. Lichtenstein pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in August 2023. In addition to the prison term, he was given three years of supervised release.
The maximum sentence for the charges was 20 years, but prosecutors proposed a five-year sentence given that Lichtenstein had no prior criminal record, cooperated actively with the investigation, and managed to launder only 25,111 bitcoins out of the 119,754 stolen. With the cryptocurrency currently trading at around $87,500, the total value of the stolen assets exceeds $10.4 billion.
Lichtenstein's wife, Heather Morgan, also known by her stage name "Razzlekhan," will be sentenced on November 18. She pleaded guilty to laundering bitcoins and fraud against the United States. She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years, but her defense is pushing for a reduced sentence given the time she has already spent in prison.
Morgan and Lichtenstein were arrested in February 2022. The investigation established that the couple tried to hide the origin of the stolen bitcoins, but ultimately managed to cash out only a small portion of the funds.
