WSJ: How the Feds Tracked Hacked Bitfinex Funds

[dunfida]

I am inclined to think that they are just part of the hacking group, perhaps scapegoats or those who collect initial info but not mainly the brains behind the actual hack. They are so fond of social media, and they have done things that could obviously put their identities in peril, and normally those who do some hacking do not engage in these kinds of activities.

The true hackers are still yet to be jailed, I believe. These two doesn't seem to be the masterminds of the heist from their most recent activities.

I do actually have the same thoughts that these couple arent the masterminds but rather just some cover ups on the said crime.It is really just impossible to think that hackers wouldnt really
be erasing their tracks that could possibly expose their identity which they are fully aware of that and its just dumb that they would be making out actions without considering that those
addresses were heavily monitored and im bit sure  that they are fully aware of that but this situation a little bit giving questions on my mind.

[pushups44]

"Mr. Lichtenstein and Ms. Morgan allegedly exchanged some of the bitcoin into other cryptocurrencies, according to the complaint, cashed some out via bitcoin ATMs and used the stolen funds to purchase nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. These digital collectibles have lately become another way crypto thieves launder digital money, the U.S. Treasury Department said last week in a report."

Does this mean that there won't be as many fresh NFT mints shooting up 100x before crashing miserably while some get rich and others are left holding the bag?  The funny thing is, I bet they were actually making a fortune doing this.  They probably went from thinking about how they'd launder their billions to wondering why everyone isn't rich since it's so easy to pump and dump.  

Has anyone discovered their opensea profile yet (I'm sure they probably had hundreds).  It would be very fascinating to see their transaction history and see if they really were making a fortune flipping NFTs while trying to launder their funds.  Would surprise me at all...

This is one of Heather Morgan's ETH addresses: 0x014a113a454d1d20e954243E224f33745353C8ac

The above address is what the Ethereum name rzk.eth resolves to.

According to reports in the media, and from my own investigation, her Opensea profile leads to a 404 error (probably due to Opensea removing it). I believe she made her own NFTs here.

[bbc.reporter]

@franky1. Do you trust this official press release to be the real story? I reckon real hackers and moneylaunderers who have control to more than $3 billion in bitcoin might be more careful and smarter. The skeptical me is beginning to think that those people in social media who speculate that they are only scapegoats might be correct. Would it be shocking if the hackers was a group commisioned by a corrupt government intelligence agency?

Have the authorities recovered any funds or is it just tracking and arresting some people?

but the main lot the ~95k[Wallet 1CGA4] never went through an exchange not cashed out by the pair, nor seized in 2017-21.
but instead seized in 2022

Between January 31, 2022, and February 1, 2022, law enforcement obtained approval to execute a lawful seizure
supported by probable cause under exigent circumstances and used the private keys from
LICHTENSTEIN’s file to seize Wallet 1CGA4’s remaining balance of approximately 94,636
BTC, worth $3.629 billion

Are the authorities not supposed to transfer those coins to a more secure wallet? It might not only be the comedy couple who is holding the private key for the wallet hehehe. This clearly should be very head shaking for everyone. The official story is not very convincing.

I am inclined to think that they are just part of the hacking group, perhaps scapegoats or those who collect initial info but not mainly the brains behind the actual hack. They are so fond of social media, and they have done things that could obviously put their identities in peril, and normally those who do some hacking do not engage in these kinds of activities.

The true hackers are still yet to be jailed, I believe. These two doesn't seem to be the masterminds of the heist from their most recent activities.

I do actually have the same thoughts that these couple arent the masterminds but rather just some cover ups on the said crime.It is really just impossible to think that hackers wouldnt really
be erasing their tracks that could possibly expose their identity which they are fully aware of that and its just dumb that they would be making out actions without considering that those
addresses were heavily monitored and im bit sure  that they are fully aware of that but this situation a little bit giving questions on my mind.

This makes it possible that the real hackers also hold the private keys for the wallet or the authorities do not really have the private keys for the wallet.

[crwth]

I would've wanted to read the whole article, but the subscription is getting in the way. Anyway, I just read your post instead.

I'm not that surprised that people are using NFTs to cycle money or something like that, and it just makes people lose trust in something so innovative and make people own it. Don't get me wrong; I'm all in the idea of absolute ownership of digital goods; it's just that there's always going to be a "bad light" towards crypto, and it's always going to be like that.

[pushups44]

This makes it possible that the real hackers also hold the private keys for the wallet or the authorities do not really have the private keys for the wallet.

As soon as the government catches crypto thieves, they deposit the ill-gotten gains into their own wallet to manage the custody. According to the news reports, the majority of the stolen loot has been recovered. Obviously, after so much time has passed, it's not possible to seize all of it - still, a good percentage (maybe 75%+) is controlled by the government.