According to court records on Friday, nearly 6 years after the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex was hacked, Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein have entered into a plea deal. The couple will appear in a plea hearing on August 3rd.
At the time of the hack, the stolen assets were valued at approximately 72 million USD. Today, they are worth nearly 3.6 billion USD.
In a statement regarding the significant amount of Bitcoin stolen last year, Bitfinex mentioned that they will fight to ensure ownership of their recovered assets. If successful, the exchange plans to use up to 80% of the recovered funds to repurchase and burn LEO tokens. This move could potentially drive the price of LEO token higher. When news broke that most of the stolen Bitcoin had been recovered, the price of LEO surged by over 50%.
The arrest of Morgan, Lichtenstein, and the seizure of assets stems from a joint investigation by various law enforcement agencies in the United States. Tracing the stolen Bitcoins required a combination of on-chain analysis, collaboration with multiple cryptocurrency exchanges, and real-world investigative efforts.
Using an array of sophisticated technologies for money laundering operations, the efforts to convert the funds back into fiat currency eventually became the incriminating evidence against the Bitfinex money launderers. According to Chainalysis, a Walmart gift card redeemed by Morgan, also known by her rapper alias ‘Razzlekhan,’ provided a crucial lead in the investigation.
Investigators have identified that the gift cards purchased with Bitcoin could be linked to the Bitfinex hack. Among them, a Walmart gift card was exchanged through an iPhone app under the account registered to Heather Morgan, also known by her rapper alias ‘Razzlekhan.’
The investigators were able to obtain search warrants for the cloud storage accounts and homes of Lichtenstein and Morgan. Upon gaining access to the accounts controlled by Lichtenstein, they discovered private keys to digital wallets, one of which directly received stolen funds from Bitfinex.