Bitcoin Forum

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After the hack Bitfinex didn't close they carried on. The stolen bitcoins were $71 million. When Lichtenstein and Morgan got arrested 6 years after it's $4.5 billion.

The couple's trying a plea bargain that's why they didn't show in court on June 3rd. Ilya ‘Dutch’ Lichtenstein's in jail. Heather ‘Razzlekhan’ Morgan's under house arrest. They're back to court on August 2nd.

What's going on with the plea bargain if they've recovered all the Bitcoins it isn't needed. I'm confused is Bitfinex getting back all 119,754 bitcoin worth Billions or just $71 million?

I'm guessing they'll probably be criminally convicted for the hack to provide some sort of punishment for that considering they held the funds for so long before they were returned... It seems strange that wasn't part of the initial deal for a plea bargain if they held on to the funds and used those as a negotiating tool (though that might not have worked - withholding 10% though might).

They are not trialed for the hack but for conspiracy to commit money laundering and defraud the state
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-arrested-alleged-conspiracy-launder-45-billion-stolen-cryptocurrency



That's between the DOJ and Bitfinex, unless the court decides that the bitcoins have to be returned to the ones owning them at the moment of the hack, the customers, and thus voiding bitfinex repayment scheme all of them will go to the exchange. From there it will be customers vs bitfinex and it will have nothing to do with the two above.

The final ownership of the coins is going to be interesting and I see it taking a long time to settle.
Does Bitfinex get them back? Does the government distribute them to the original owners even it Bitfinex 'made them whole"? Does the insurance Bitfinex tapped get some? Is it determined based on the fiat value at the time of the hack? The time of the recovery? The time of the trial? Or do they take the 1BTC = 1BTC?
What about the tax implications? If I had 1BTC at the time of the hack and you now give me less then that can I write off the loss?
And so on.

The only winners.....lawyers and accountants.....

-Dave

The American legal system's strange, strange. It's easy getting criminally convicted it's easy avoiding jail. They've traded plea bargains in famous high profile cases before it's happening in crocodile of wall street.

They're connected. Even if they didn't carry out the hack they've laundered money. If you're laundering $71 million or $4.5 billions it ends with criminals jailed. How's their plea bargain getting them safe from jail I think it's getting them less sentencing time. If plea bargain succeeds they're going to be old when they get out.

It's another strange situation. If Bitfinex customers got funded back on Bitfinex expenses those Bitcoins belong to Bitfinex. What was Bitfinex repayment scheme?

I'm just curious if we'll get to find out more information about the hack.  Seeing some of Razzlekhan's talks about social engineering makes me wonder if this was all done via a computer hack, or if they really got themselves into a physical position to exploit some social engineering hack.  I'm also curious if it was just one of them that pulled everything off, or if they were working as some Bonnie & Clyde team.  I'd love to think there was some crazy story and real life Catwoman style break in accompanying the hack, but I guess it's more likely that one of them were just messing around and found a loophole from their bedroom computer.

No idea what will happen to them, but I'll watch the movie.

The crime still took place, it doesn't make any mention that they helped in recovery of the coins - police seizing their devices might have been able to retrieve this without their help. The value of the bitcoins is somewhat relevant, because customers might not have been able to cash out when they wanted to at a much higher value. You should not have sympathy for them, as they planned to get away from this and did not hand the money back after taking some altruistic view of life. They should be punished on the basis that they would have kept hold of the money if they were not traced and slowly cashed it out to fund a lavish lifestyle, they were caught because they were terrible at moneylaundering.

The government shouldn't be allowed to distribute recovered bitcoins to original owners they've got to be handed to Bitfinex. If the government stays honest the lawyers and accountants won't win.