Hacker Ilya Lichtenstein, known under the nickname “Dutch”, was sentenced to five years in prison by a federal court in Washington. He previously admitted to hacking the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange in 2016 and stealing nearly 120,000 bitcoins, which are now worth more than $10 billion.
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Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan were arrested in 2022 and both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering last August. The stolen cryptocurrency, which was worth about $71 million at the time of the theft, had grown in value to about $4.5 billion by the time Lichtenstein and Morgan were arrested. At today’s prices, the stolen funds would be worth more than $10 billion.
According to the US Department of Justice, Lichtenstein and Morgan “used numerous sophisticated laundering techniques” to hide the stolen funds, including using fictitious identification, converting Bitcoin to other cryptocurrencies, purchasing gold, and posting and receiving proceeds on various darknet markets and cryptocurrency exchanges. .
Liechtenstein’s five-year sentence is noticeably lower than the maximum 20-year sentence for conspiracy to launder money. Morgan, also known as “Razzlekhan”, will be sentenced on November 18. She is expected to face 18 months in prison.