Bitcoin Heist Mastermind Sentenced to 5 Years

Ilya Lichtenstein, a New York tech entrepreneur, was sentenced to five years in prison for laundering funds stolen from the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange in 2016, with the help of his wife, Heather Morgan. The couple was arrested in February 2022 after the stolen bitcoin, initially worth $71 million, appreciated to over $4.5 billion. This case led to the largest financial seizure in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice, recovering $3.6 billion. Morgan, who also pleaded guilty, is set to be sentenced in November.