in 2016 birfinex About 120 thousand Bitcoins were stolen from the cryptocurrency exchange. Hacker Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein was shown as the name behind this incident, which was one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange heists in history. Appeared in federal court in Washington to Lichtenstein He was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan He was arrested in 2022. The duo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in August last year. Cryptocurrencies were stolen at the time $71 million loved. Today it is the equivalent of the amount stolen $10 billion it rises above it all.

They laundered millions of dollars

Lichtenstein and Morgan, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. “numerous advanced money laundering techniques” used to launder stolen money. Among these, they used methods such as using fake identities, converting Bitcoins into other crypto units and putting them into circulation, circulating money through the darknet, and buying gold.

Lichenstein’s five-year prison sentence was the standard imposed for such crimes in the United States. 20 years in prison It attracted attention because it was quite low. Heather Morgan will appear in court on November 18. Morgan is also expected to be sentenced to 18 months in prison.