DoJ: Bitfinex Hacker Should Spend Five Years in Prison

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Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein, who admitted to his involvement in the 2016 Bitfinex hack, is facing a five-year prison sentence as recommended by prosecutors.

Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan, were arrested in 2022 and accused of laundering nearly 120,000 stolen Bitcoins.

Initially, Lichtenstein and Morgan were believed to have laundered only a portion of the stolen funds.

However, Lichtenstein later confessed to being the original hacker and revealed that the couple successfully laundered 25,111 Bitcoins (approximately 21% of the total stolen amount) using sophisticated money laundering techniques involving Eastern European bank accounts and Bitcoin mixing services.

Prosecutors described their methods as the most complex money laundering schemes ever encountered by IRS agents.