A New York know-how entrepreneur was sentenced to 5 years in jail on Thursday after pleading responsible final yr to laundering funds stolen from Bitfinex, one of many world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, with the assistance of his spouse.
Ilya Lichtenstein, 35, hacked into Bitfinex’s community in 2016, utilizing superior hacking instruments and strategies, and stole about 120,000 bitcoin, the Justice Division stated in an announcement.
He and his spouse Heather Morgan, who used the hip-hop alias “Razzklekhan” to advertise her music, had been arrested in February 2022.
The bitcoin was value $71 million on the time of the theft, however had appreciated to greater than $4.5 billion by the point of their arrests.
Deputy Lawyer Common Lisa Monaco stated on the time that the $3.6 billion in property that prosecutors recovered from the couple was the most important monetary seizure within the historical past of the Division of Justice.
Morgan had additionally pleaded responsible final yr to at least one depend of conspiracy to commit cash laundering. Morgan is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 18.
Along with his time period of imprisonment, Lichtenstein was ordered to serve three years of supervised launch, the Justice Division stated.
