{"id":19745,"date":"2024-12-20T12:50:59","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T10:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/ilya-lichtenstein-admits-sole-responsibility-for-bitfinex-hack\/"},"modified":"2024-12-20T12:50:59","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T10:50:59","slug":"ilya-lichtenstein-admits-sole-responsibility-for-bitfinex-hack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/ilya-lichtenstein-admits-sole-responsibility-for-bitfinex-hack\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilya Lichtenstein Admits Sole Responsibility for Bitfinex Hack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Convicted in the Bitfinex hack case, Ilya Lichtenstein claimed he executed the cyberattack on the cryptocurrency exchange alone, without the involvement of his family or other accomplices.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I have something to say<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FreeRazzlekhan?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#FreeRazzlekhan<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9HIvOxcbgr\">pic.twitter.com\/9HIvOxcbgr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ilya Lichtenstein (@unrealdutch) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/unrealdutch\/status\/1869713981591663003?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 19, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;I planned and executed the Bitfinex heist entirely by myself. I bear full responsibility for what happened,&#8221; he said in a video released from prison.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan were arrested in February 2022 on suspicion of involvement in the platform attack. At that time, authorities seized 94,643 BTC (approximately $3.6 billion at the time) from the stolen 119,754 BTC.<\/p>\n<p>In August 2023, both pleaded guilty to money laundering, but Lichtenstein disagreed with his role in the hack.<\/p>\n<p>In November 2024, a U.S. court sentenced him to five years in prison for laundering the stolen exchange funds. Morgan received an 18-month sentence.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;I sincerely apologize to Bitfinex for all the stress I caused. For a long time, I made bad, selfish decisions one after another. I knew I was doing wrong, but I did it anyway because I didn&#8217;t care. I didn&#8217;t worry about anyone but myself,&#8221; Lichtenstein stated.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Regarding his wife, he noted that she was in no way involved in the hack, although she admitted to laundering &#8220;a small portion of the money.&#8221; According to the hacker, Morgan &#8220;didn&#8217;t know for years&#8221; what he had done.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;In many ways, my wife, whom I love so much, is just another victim of my poor decisions. She is not the Bitfinex hacker. I am,&#8221; Lichtenstein emphasized.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Morgan <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HeatherReyhan\/status\/1869716659268952543\">reposted<\/a> her husband&#8217;s statement, commenting that he &#8220;refutes false claims from an unauthorized Netflix documentary.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>According to the authors of the <a href=\"https:\/\/thecinemaholic.com\/eugene-lichtenstein\/\">film<\/a> &#8220;The Biggest Heist in History,&#8221; the father of the Bitfinex hacker, Eugene Lichtenstein, is a hacker known as Deuce. They linked him to a 2005 bank attack in Indiana and suggested that Ilya acquired illegal cyber operation skills from him.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;Any claims that my elderly and not tech-savvy father was involved in any hacking activities are completely false and frankly absurd,&#8221; said Ilya Lichtenstein.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He stated that his father lived &#8220;an honest and law-abiding life&#8221; and was shocked by his son&#8217;s crime.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;No one but me is responsible for the hack. You don&#8217;t have to take my word for it. All court documents with the facts of the case are publicly available. You can read them yourself and make your decision,&#8221; Lichtenstein declared.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He assured that he has ceased illegal activities, as &#8220;years in prison are a powerful deterrent.&#8221; Upon release, Lichtenstein intends to work in the cybersecurity industry.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;I have a certain skill set. And I believe I can use it to do a lot of good in this field. No one knows the darknet better than someone who spent years in it. And no one understands a hacker&#8217;s mindset better than someone who was one,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Lichtenstein also noted his cooperation with authorities in the confiscation and return of the funds stolen from Bitfinex. Restitutions are expected to reach approximately $10 billion by the first quarter of 2025.<\/p>\n<p>In October, U.S. authorities named the exchange as the sole claimant for compensation from the hack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Convicted in the Bitfinex hack case, Ilya Lichtenstein claimed he executed the cyberattack on the cryptocurrency exchange alone, without the involvement of his family or other accomplices. I have something to say#FreeRazzlekhan pic.twitter.com\/9HIvOxcbgr \u2014 Ilya Lichtenstein (@unrealdutch) December 19, 2024 &#8220;I planned and executed the Bitfinex heist entirely by myself. I bear full responsibility for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[95,1154,44],"class_list":["post-19745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-bitfinex","tag-crimes","tag-cybercrime"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"31","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}