Hacker sentenced over bitcoin theft worth billions

Published On Nov 15, 2024, 3:15 PM

Ilya Lichtenstein, a hacker who was involved in the theft of 119,754 bitcoins from the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016, has been sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering. Along with his wife, Heather Morgan, Lichtenstein pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder the stolen funds, which were worth approximately $70 million at the time of the theft but have since appreciated significantly. The couple employed various sophisticated techniques to conceal the origins of the funds they controlled.