US prosecutors have requested court permission to return nearly $10 billion in Bitcoin recovered from the 2016 Bitfinex hack.
According to a court filing, federal prosecutors plan to seize 80% of the 119,754 Bitcoin (BTC) has been recovered from the crypto exchange Bitfinex back to the platform.
Government investigators seized 94,643 BTC from Ilya Lichtenstein, the person who hacked Bitfinex in 2016 and launched the money with his partner, Heather “RazzleKhan” Morgan.
The BTC stash was removed from the original wallet used by Lichtenstein during the check. Therefore, he can be returned as “homosexual rehabilitation,” prosecutors wrote to a federal judge. Back in October, federal attorneys an argument that Bitfinex may be the only victim, pavement the route for this distribution plan according to US law.
Bitfinex Bitcoin Is Extremely “Complex”
The remaining funds, around 25,000 BTC, may be more difficult to return. In the filing, prosecutors explained that Lichtenstein and Morgan had funneled portions of the stolen tokens into crypto mixers, darknet markets, and “technologically specific” platforms.
Due to these laundering attempts, these funds cannot be returned directly. The Department of Justice has proposed a subsidiary forfeiture process to recover the remaining BTC, although the timeline for this process remains unclear.
Lichtenstein and Morgan stole nearly 120,000 BTC from Bitfinex in 2016 – a collection now worth nearly $12 billion. Authorities arrested Lichtenstein in February 2022, and he pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy charges in 2023.
Lichtenstein was sentenced to five years in prison, and Morgan is to be prison for 18 months.
