A hacker has been sentenced to five years in US prison for money laundering in one of the biggest cryptocurrency thefts ever.
Ilya Lichtenstein pleaded guilty last year to a case involving the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange that was hacked in 2016 and the theft of nearly 120,000 bitcoins.
He stole the stolen cryptocurrency with the help of his wife Heather Morgan, who used the name Razzlekhan to promote his hip hop music.
At the time of the theft, the bitcoin was worth around $70m (£55.3m), but had increased in value to more than $4.5bn by the time they were arrested. At today’s prices it would cost more than double that.
The $3.6bn worth of assets recovered in the case was the largest financial seizure in DOJ history, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said at the time.
“It’s important to send the message that you can’t commit these crimes with impunity, that there are consequences,” said Circuit Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
Lichtenstein, who has been in prison since his arrest in February 2022, has expressed remorse for his actions.
He also said he hopes to use his skills to fight cybercrime after serving his sentence.
Morgan also pleaded guilty last week to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is expected to be sentenced on November 18.
According to court documents, Lichtenstein used advanced hacking tools and techniques to hack Bitfinex.
After the robbery, he enlisted Morgan’s help to recover the stolen funds.
“They use a lot of sophisticated methods to clean clothes”, said the US Department of Justice (DoJ) in a statement.
The methods included using fake information, converting funds into different cryptocurrencies and buying gold coins.
Lichtenstein, who was born in Russia but raised in the US, would meet with agents while on family trips and take the stolen money back home, prosecutors said.
Morgan’s Razzlekhan persona went viral on social media when the case arose.
Even though the couple tried to hide this robbery, they published a number of music videos full of profanity and rap songs recorded in places around New York.
In his words he calls himself a “money maker” and a “Wall Street crocodile”.
In articles published in Forbes magazine, Morgan also claimed to be a successful businesswoman in technology, calling herself an “economist, serial entrepreneur, software investor and rapper”.
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