US prosecutors push for 5 year prison sentence for Bitfinex-hack mastermind
US prosecutors urged a Washington federal judge that Ilya Lichtenstein, the mastermind who extracted 120,000 Bitcoin ($8 billion) by hacking into the Bitfinex crypto exchange, should get five years in prison.
According to Bloomberg, in an Oct. 15 court filing submitted to the US District Court of Columbia, US prosecutors said that Ilya Lichtenstein, who pleaded guilty last year, should receive a more severe prison sentence than his wife and accomplice Heather Morgan, also known as rapper “Razzlekhan.”
Prosecutors argued that a strong sentence would help deter young cyber criminals like Lichtenstein from attempting similar crimes, citing that the culprit’s online activity is still “normalized in a way that trivializes the impact on the victims.”
Lichtenstein was discovered to be the mastermind responsible for the 2016 Bitfinex hack. He extracted a total of 120,000 Bitcoin(BTC) which he later laundered with the help of his wife, the government said. The couple are set to receive their sentence in November.
On Oct. 11, prosecutors advocated for Morgan, who’d dubbed herself the “Crocodile of Wall Street,” to get 18 months in prison. Morgan, who pleaded guilty last year to money-laundering conspiracy charges, provided “substantial assistance” to the government.
Lichtenstein also provided cooperation for other criminal cases, which prevented prosecutors from pushing the judge to give him the maximum sentence. In Feb. 2024, he testified as a government witness in a money-laundering trial involved a mixing service called Bitcoin Fog.
According to prosecutors, Lichtenstein and Morgan used sophisticate money-laundering methods to cover their tracks, including withdrawing and depositing funds from unregulated crypto exchanges and darknet markets. They also used mixers and tumblers such as Bitcoin Fog, Helix, and ChipMixer to snuff out their financial trail.
Morgan admitted that she found out about her husband’s money-laundering scheme and prior Bitfinex heist in 2020. She then proceeded to help him hide the funds through various methods such as using the money to purchase nonfungible tokens, gold and Walmart gift cards.
