US Seeks Five-Year Sentence for Ilya Lichtenstein, Mastermind of $6 Billion Bitfinex Crypto Heist

The US government wants Ilya Lichtenstein to serve five years for hacking Bitfinex for $6 billion. Last year, Lichtenstein admitted to money laundering charges and allegedly planned one of the largest cryptocurrency robberies. He was the mastermind behind the complex hacking that hit the Bitfinex platform and caused a massive loss of digital assets.

Bitfinex Hacker Ilya Lichtenstein Should Serve 5 Years in Prison, DOJ Says

It is expected that he would get a longer sentence than Heather Morgan, his wife and partner in crime, who is only going to jail for 18 months. Morgan, a rapper with stage names like “Crocodile of Wall Street” and “Razzlekhan,” worked with Lichtenstein to hide the stolen money after they found out about it in 2020.

In a court document, investigators said that Lichtenstein was the main person who planned and carried out the crime. Some people said he was like other young cybercriminals whose bad behaviour is expected in online groups, making the harm to victims seem less critical. The government said a harsh sentence would help “break the cycle” of cybercrime by clarifying that these crimes have significant consequences.

Even though Lichtenstein did terrible things, the prosecutors didn’t ask for the harshest punishment available. They admitted that he had helped with other criminal cases, especially his testimony in a case involving Bitcoin Fog earlier this year. This service mixed cryptocurrencies that helped launder money. The fact that he helped with that case probably affected the government’s choice to ask for a slightly lighter sentence.

Lichtenstein and Morgan hid their tracks using complex methods to launder money, such as moving stolen money through cryptocurrency exchanges and dark web markets. They turned the money into different things, like gold, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and even Walmart gift cards. Both of them are going to be sentenced in November. This will end a case showing how weak cryptocurrency markets are and how intelligent hackers are getting.