US prosecutors have asked a federal judge to allow the return of nearly 80% of the 119,754 bitcoins stolen in the 2016 hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex.
In a court filing filed Tuesday, prosecutors said the 94,643 bitcoins recovered by the government from the original wallet used by the hacker, Ilya Lichtenstein, could be paid to Bitfinex as restitution in kind once the court given the green light. Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Satoshi Vision and Bitcoin Gold generated via several hard forks following the hack will also be sent to Bitfinex.
Last November, Lichtenstein was sentenced to 5 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in 2023. His wife, Heather Morgan – better known by her rap moniker Razzlekhan – was sentenced to 18 month in prison for helping Lichtenstein launder part of his money. of the proceeds of piracy. Both agreed to forfeit the stolen cryptocurrency as part of their plea deal.
Returning the remaining 25,000 bitcoins will be more complicated.
In their filing, prosecutors said that because Lichtenstein and Morgan attempted to launder these coins through “a variety of complex and technologically sophisticated means, including laundering through extensive peel chain transactions, virtual currency exchanges non-compliant, darknet markets and mixers and cups”. , as well as the mixing of the defendants’ professional and personal accounts”, they cannot be qualified as “specific property” lost during the hack and must therefore be returned via an accessory confiscation procedure.
