Lost Money in the 2016 Bitfinex Hack? DOJ Says There Are ‘No Victims’

The USA Division of Justice (DOJ) has arrange an internet site to gather statements from individuals affected by the 2016 Bitfinex hack.

The initiative goals to offer potential victims a chance to relay how they might have been impacted by the legal conduct of Ilya Lichtenstein and his spouse, Heather Morgan. The initiative was introduced in a Nov. 7 Department of Justice press release.

Whereas the DOJ’s place is that there aren’t any victims underneath the Crime Victims’ Rights Act (CVRA) for the offenses of conviction, the division is offering this discover to the general public to make sure that anybody probably harmed by the defendants’ actions could be heard. This contains affected Bitfinex account holders.

In August 2016, Ilya Lichtenstein infiltrated the cryptocurrency trade Bitfinex, ensuing within the theft of roughly 120,000 Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Money (BCH). When the property had been stolen, they had been price roughly $72 million. However now, the stolen Bitcoin alone is price about $9.2 billion.

Following the breach, Lichtenstein developed a posh scheme to launder the stolen property. This plan concerned a number of layers of transactions, using cryptocurrency mixers, engagement with non-compliant exchanges, utilization of darknet markets, and transferring funds by way of financial institution accounts each in america and overseas.

Heather Morgan assisted Lichtenstein in laundering the illicit funds. The couple continued their actions till their arrest in February 2022. They had been charged with conspiracy to commit cash laundering and conspiracy to defraud america.

On August 3, 2023, Lichtenstein pleaded responsible to at least one depend of cash laundering conspiracy. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 14, 2024—with the Division of Justice recommending a sentence in extra of 5 years. On the identical day final August, Morgan pleaded responsible to at least one depend of cash laundering conspiracy and one depend of conspiracy to Defraud america. Her sentencing is about for Nov. 15, 2024.

The report follows a hacker lately draining $20 million from a United States authorities cryptocurrency pockets containing property seized from the Bitfinex hack, solely to return most of the funds mere days later. About $19.3 million price of funds had been returned, however some funds had been transferred to exchanges and haven’t been despatched again.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.