Security News > 2022 > February > U.S. Arrests Two and Seizes $3.6 Billion Cryptocurrency Stolen in 2016 Bitfinex Hack

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday announced the arrest of a married couple in connection with conspiring to launder cryptocurrency worth $4.5 billion that was siphoned during the hack of the virtual currency exchange Bitfinex in 2016.

Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31, both of New York, are alleged to have "Stolen funds through a labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions," with the law enforcement getting hold of over $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency by following the money trails, resulting in the "Largest financial seizure ever."

The laundering scheme involved moving proceeds of 119,754 bitcoin from Bitfinex by initiating more than 2,000 unauthorized transactions that were diverted to a digital wallet under Lichtenstein's control.

Over the past five years, roughly 25,000 stolen bitcoins were then transferred and deposited into financial accounts held by the couple.

Depositing stolen funds into accounts at a variety of virtual currency exchanges and darknet markets to obfuscate the transaction trail,.

Pursuant to a court-authorized search warrant of online accounts controlled by the two individuals, law enforcement officials ultimately obtained access to a file saved to Lichtenstein's cloud storage account that contained the private keys required to access the digital wallet used to receive the funds, enabling the authorities to recover the remainder of more than 94,000 bitcoins.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2022/02/us-arrests-two-and-seizes-36-million-in.html