Key Takeaways:
- Department of Justice charged spouses with money laundering after confiscating billions of dollars linked to the Bitfinex exchange hack.
- Some members of the crypto community don’t see Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan as the Bitfinex hackers.
YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) – Married couple Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan appeared in publications concerning a crypto exchange Bitfinex hack of 2016. As CoinChapter reported recently, the Department of Justice (DOJ) seized over $3.6 billion from Mr. Lichtenstein’s crypto wallet, linked to the $4.5 billion stolen from Bitfinex.
In detail, one of the biggest heists in crypto history wiped 119,754 Bitcoin (BTC) off the exchange through 2,000 unauthorized transactions. The stolen amount then landed on the crypto wallet that the DOJ was able to gain access to.
The Feds allege that Mr. Lichtenstein transferred over one-third of the stolen Bitcoins out of the mentioned wallet. Then, he made accounts with fake names and converted Bitcoins to other, more private digital currencies like Monero, a process known as “chain-hopping.”
Also read: LEO token jumped 88% after DOJ seizes $3.6B tied to Bitfinex hack of 2016.
The DOJ charged Mr. Lichtenstein and Mrs. Morgan with “conspiracy to commit money laundering” and “conspiracy to defraud the United States”. As a result, the culprits could face 25 years in prison in case of the maximal sentence.
However, the spouses’ personal profiles on social media beg the question of whether they are actually behind the hack or they are money launderers for a more extensive operation?
Who is Ilya Lichtenstein ?
One of the alleged Bitfinex hackers is a tech entrepreneur and a Web3 developer. However, some of his social media posts had some crypto community members scratching their heads as to whether he’s qualified enough to pull off a heist of that proportion.
Moreover, the community asked why a person would harbor millions of dollars in stolen BTC on an amount linked to their name.
Also read: Bitcoin for Truckers: How a Canadian union, banned by GoFundMe, is using crypto to fight oppression.
Ironically, Mr. Lichtenstein has earlier expressed concerns regarding crypto security. However, he wrote that decentralized cloud wallets could solve the issue.
The biggest threat to mass adoption is without a doubt, security. It’s still way too hard to properly secure plain text private keys without making a mistake along the way.
We cannot expect mainstream users to be security experts in a world where the most common password is still “123456”. Security needs to be built in to the product by design, not left up the user.
said Dutch.
Who is Heather Morgan?
A copywriter, who dabbed her feet in tech, Mrs. Morgan described herself as a “serial entrepreneur”. She also raps under the pseudonym Razzlekhan. Furthermore, her questionable rap skills and TikTok posts prompted a Twitter user to say, “THE HACKERS ARE NOT CIA. THEY ARE IDIOTS.”
Moreover, one of the supposed Bitfinex hackers also wrote for Forbes and delivered tips on protecting a business from cybercriminals.
Companies that didn’t already have distributed teams or work-from-home policies have struggled to transition to going fully remote amidst the pandemic. Cybercriminals and fraudsters are taking advantage of this unexpected disruption, leading to a spike in scams and cybercrime.
said Mrs. Morgan.
Also read: Bitcoin to be recognized as a form of currency in Russia.
It is not yet clear if the spouses were, in fact, involved in the hack or if they are a part of a bigger scheme. All the same, they could end up in prison for a maximal sentence of 25 years for money laundering and “conspiracy to defraud the United States”. The couple already appeared before the court on Feb 8. However, the hearing details have not yet been released to the public.
