A hacker was sentenced to five years in federal prison on Thursday for laundering hundreds of thousands of bitcoins now valued at over $10 billion, which he stole from cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex.
Ilya Lichtenstein, 35, received credit during his sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly for the time he has already served since his arrest in February 2022. As a result, Lichtenstein will serve just over two additional years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
Bitfinex Hacker Gets 5 Years : Judge Grants Leniency for Cooperation
The sentencing fell below the 10- to 12-year range suggested by federal guidelines, with prosecutors urging leniency due to Lichtenstein’s “early and fulsome cooperation” following his guilty plea to a money laundering conspiracy. The judge agreed, citing his assistance to authorities as a significant factor in the reduced sentence.
Lichtenstein admitted to utilizing sophisticated hacking methods to steal nearly 200,000 bitcoins from Bitfinex in 2016. At the time of the breach, the digital assets were worth approximately $71 million. However, the value of those stolen bitcoins has since skyrocketed, totaling over $10 billion as of the sentencing date.
Laundering Scheme Involved Wife Heather Morgan
Prosecutors revealed that Lichtenstein’s wife, Heather Morgan, assisted in laundering the stolen bitcoins. The couple allegedly employed a variety of tactics, including converting bitcoin into other cryptocurrencies and even exchanging some funds for physical gold coins, in an effort to obscure the trail of the illicit funds.
