The Bitfinex exchange suffered one of the largest hacking attacks in history in 2016, with nearly 120,000 Bitcoins stolen. Yesterday, Ilya Lichtenstein, the husband of an American couple arrested last year on suspicion of laundering BTC stolen money from the Bitfinex case, admitted in documents that he was the hacker who committed the shocking theft.

Bitfinex, a veteran cryptocurrency exchange, suffered one of the largest hacking attacks in history in August 2016. At that time, hackers stole as many as 119,756 Bitcoins (worth approximately US$71 million at the time). Times have changed, and based on the current Bitcoin price of US$29,190, the value has increased more than 50 times to US$3.5 billion.

Dynamic Zone has previously reported that in February last year, the U.S. Department of Justice captured the American husband-and-wife team - Russian entrepreneur Ilya Lichtenstein and his 33-year-old rapper wife Heather Morgan - who were suspected of laundering nearly 120,000 Bitcoins in the Bitfinex hacking case, and successfully 94,000 Bitcoins were seized, and the remaining approximately 25,000 BTCs were successfully laundered by the couple through a number of sophisticated money laundering techniques.

In late July this year, the couple accused by prosecutors of "conspiracy to commit money laundering" agreed to a plea agreement with the US authorities. Prosecutors ordered the confiscation of cash in the defendants' bank accounts and related proceeds from the Bitcoin money laundering activities in the Bitfinex case, including billions of dollars in value. Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, and other cryptocurrencies in USD.

However, the identity of the Bitfinex hackers remains a mystery, although many people suspect that the money laundering couple may be the hackers who committed the shocking theft.

Money laundering couple documents husband admits he was Bitfinex hacker

As a result, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on the 4th that when Ilya Lichtenstein attended the plea hearing on August 3, in addition to accepting charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, he also admitted that he was the hacker who committed the 2016 Bitfinex Bitcoin theft! The whole hacking incident seems to be coming to light.

Court documents also describe how Lichtenstein launched an attack on Bitfinex in 2016:

Lichtenstein used a variety of advanced hacking tools and techniques to gain access to Bitfinex’s network. After hacking into Bitfinex's systems, Lichtenstein fraudulently authorized more than 2,000 transactions, in which 119,754 bitcoins were transferred from Bitfinex to cryptocurrency wallets controlled by Lichtenstein.

Lichtenstein then took steps to cover his tracks by returning to the Bitfinex network and deleting access credentials and other log files that could have exposed him to law enforcement. Subsequently, Lichtenstein, with the help of his wife Morgan, used a number of sophisticated money laundering techniques to launder the stolen funds.

According to CNBC, Lichtenstein’s wife, who paid $3 million in bail last year, pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government at a hearing yesterday. However, the couple has not been charged by the prosecutors for the hacking attack. Lichtenstein admitted at this time that he may have reached a guilty plea agreement with the prosecutors.

Lichtenstein currently pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and the two charges his wife Morgan pleaded guilty to each carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Bifinex statement response

Bitfinex also said in a statement: Following the hacker attack in August 2016, Bitfinex took unprecedented efforts to protect its customers.

Bitfinex is also actively working with the U.S. Department of Justice to identify the perpetrators of the hack, recover the stolen Bitcoins, and bring the hackers to justice.

Seven years on, those efforts are bearing fruit.