Bitcoin is not a safe haven for criminals

[qwertyup23]

It is how we use bitcoin. If we have a large amount of bitcoin, we need to know how to spend our bitcoin and not spend a large amount to make a transaction. That can get attention from the local banks, investigators or some regulators to check your account.

As long as we can use bitcoin as it should be, we can stay safe and won't attract their attention. But if there are people who use bitcoin in large quantities, surely they have considered what they should do.

I think this is considered one of the collateral effects of transacting into the blockchain- absolute anonymity especially if you use mixers along the way. Though there have been cases where criminals where able to purchase contraband items under the dark web, it is still without a doubt financial freedom on our end.

Similarly to fiat, anyone can purchase guns or any contraband stuff using it. In fact, fiat is the main currency where every country uses, so stating that transacting BTC is associated with criminal activities is just a speck of its total potential in the market.

[avikz]

It's great that criminals can't hide behind the network of decentralized computers. It's comforting to see that cyber criminals are getting caught and thrown inside prison. The cyber criminals must understand that they can't run forever and enforcement agencies have tools to track them down.

I would recommend to read this article to get better insight on how DOJ had tracked them down.

https://time.com/6146749/cryptocurrency-laundering-bitfinex-hack/

[Baofeng]

It's great that criminals can't hide behind the network of decentralized computers. It's comforting to see that cyber criminals are getting caught and thrown inside prison. The cyber criminals must understand that they can't run forever and enforcement agencies have tools to track them down.

Every criminal even in fiat world will be sloppy at time and they are going to be caught. And just like in crypto world wherein every transaction is recorded in blockchain. It's just how the government spend their time trying to crack the puzzle of the criminals. Because sooner or later they will find some foot prints that will incriminate them. They just need one addresses to follow and uncovering the real identities of the criminals just like in this case.

[taufik123]

i see, now i know  why mostly don't want kyc when it come using exchanges for converting their crypto to fiat because someone can trace them easily or report them especially if they're very suspicious as well like thus two couple.   and i wonder why these couples didn't even think about what will be the results afterwards before using an exchange that requires kyc because its a masive amount though.. Well its literally a epic fail for a fraud like them.

KYC is one of the ways used by exchanges to find out user data and overcome crimes such as fraud in crypto. Of course the pros and cons of KYC are many, but for those who don't want to use KYC it's their personal choice.
Everything will be traceable even without using KYC, because transactions will continue to be recorded and will eventually find out where the money is finally going.

[arwin100]

i see, now i know  why mostly don't want kyc when it come using exchanges for converting their crypto to fiat because someone can trace them easily or report them especially if they're very suspicious as well like thus two couple.   and i wonder why these couples didn't even think about what will be the results afterwards before using an exchange that requires kyc because its a masive amount though.. Well its literally a epic fail for a fraud like them.

KYC is one of the ways used by exchanges to find out user data and overcome crimes such as fraud in crypto. Of course the pros and cons of KYC are many, but for those who don't want to use KYC it's their personal choice.
Everything will be traceable even without using KYC, because transactions will continue to be recorded and will eventually find out where the money is finally going.

This is one way of exchange to battle frauds that's why we see the numbers of activities lessen on exchange as well in casino since some several casino are now implementing it. Mostly frauds happened in NFT now which ghost trades happen so I think maybe this will be one will taken action by government since for now anyone can easily get out a huge amount of money by buying what so called Nft to make things look legitimate.

[Obito]

Yes it's not but it's a temporary respite because it's pseudonymous and they will only be identified if they are going to be purposely tracked which is difficult in of itself because they can disguise the movement of their money by making it an intermittent transaction instead of just going in one go and they end blending up with all the other people, I don't think that it's of any use for us to deny that criminals can't use bitcoin for their illegal activities.

[yazher]

With this scenario, scammers are now extra careful when cashing out their stolen crypto but what I want is they will be all caught with their own mistakes. That's right, we don't need to know about how the police caught them or what strategies they used. because it's crucial tools for their next target and they might fail to track the others. This is how it should be when they publish it, they need to emphasize their criminal act and not to put the blame on bitcoin.

[bitterguy28]

With this scenario, scammers are now extra careful when cashing out their stolen crypto but what I want is they will be all caught with their own mistakes. That's right, we don't need to know about how the police caught them or what strategies they used. because it's crucial tools for their next target and they might fail to track the others. This is how it should be when they publish it, they need to emphasize their criminal act and not to put the blame on bitcoin.

this will serve as warning for all scammers/hackers and all the bad element in crypto world that Justice will always be serve , no matter how long it will take but surely you will face what you must have in time.

criminals will always be behind bars , and this news prove it to be valid and true.

some criminals believe that they can hide using crypto but wrong, law will always there to sue you and bring you to justice .

[Webetcoins]

Was it possible for them to have avoided getting caught? I think so. The reason why they're caught is more of their own faults rather than the capabilities of the FBI to track them down. Of course it is very hard to be extremely careful every step of the way. It might even be next to impossible to avoid committing an act of negligence or carelessness forever. It is hard not to commit a mistake and leave a trace. But it could be done.

It is possible. They can just leave the place where they currently leave or change details, everything from their name to emails and the device that use but I think they never did that. They got comfortable and think they will never get caught because the transaction done was online plus it was already a long time when the hack happened but I do not under estimate the fbi.

They can hire professionals in the IT field to do the work. It is true what they say that bitcoin is really not a safe haven not only for the non criminals or the the normal investors because it has risk and more over to the criminals because they could possibly be traced.

[KaliLinux]

Recently, I went through the article about the biggest cryptocurrency fraud in history executed by a married couple.  Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, husband, and wife, have been tracked down by the FBI for laundering 119,754 bitcoins from Bitfinex five years ago. After many attempts to rinse the money through chain hopping on numerous anonymity enhanced cryptocurrencies like monero. The FBI was able to apprehend them.

I want to know, what else does the government want to regulate the cryptocurrency blockchain for if the FBI can perform such a rigorous search on all the virtual accounts that have been created online by the couple? And found the private key linked to the wallet that received the funds, and they recovered over $3.5 billion and recorded it as the biggest seizure in the cryptocurrency niche.

“Criminals always leave tracks, and today’s case is a reminder that the FBI has the tools to follow the digital trail, wherever it may lead,” said FBI Deputy Director Paul M. Abbate.

I think the transaction the Government cannot track in the block-chain technology has not be made. FBI claim that they will endeavor to trace any fraudulent activity in the cryptocurreny network through their 21st century investigative technique. (I don't know what they mean by that)

we're able to uncover the source of even the most sophisticated schemes and bring justice to those who try to exploit the security of our financial infrastructure.

Read:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-arrested-alleged-conspiracy-launder-45-billion-stolen-cryptocurrency

After that success of FBI now the governments may change their mind for bitcoin. Now they cannot deny the fact that bitcoin is safe for fraud and if someone will do money laundering then they will be caught.

The bitcoin community is thankful to the FBI that they helped those who lost their money because of this hack. It will increase the courage of people who want to adopt bitcoin for their personal lives and for their businesses.

With bitcoin's transparency, it will always give a hard time for scammers and other criminal acts to succeed. They may enjoy the stolen money temporarily, but know that they will always be traced later on. That gives more advantage to use bitcoin as everything is transparent compared to fiat that is more dubious and questionable. That is why money fraudulence and laundering is rampant in fiat while in bitcoin its more controlled.

With all these advantages about bitcoin, i don't see enough reason why the government is still hesitant to accept bitcoin knowing all its transactions are transparent and so you can't see any illegalities from it. Best proof is that FBI has managed to traced whatever fraudulence that happened to it. That is, if the government can also be transparent in all their transactions, so there is no valid reason that bitcoin cannot be accepted as a currency.

Well, they know if this is going to be that case, how many of the people involved in Bitcoin will ever leave their money in any bank account? and how would they, the Government be able to control the people if they no longer have access to your funds? did you see what the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is trying to do? Trudeau vows to freeze anti-mandate protesters' bank accounts. It is a way to control so they will never let it happen regardless of how transparent they know it is.

[pinggoki]

With this scenario, scammers are now extra careful when cashing out their stolen crypto but what I want is they will be all caught with their own mistakes. That's right, we don't need to know about how the police caught them or what strategies they used. because it's crucial tools for their next target and they might fail to track the others. This is how it should be when they publish it, they need to emphasize their criminal act and not to put the blame on bitcoin.

Exactly but they still can use crypto for their nefarious purposes, if you look at bitcoin, it's still a pseudonymous cryptocurrency so the criminals still has a leeway for them to use. Pretty sure that we don't have any clue about how the police work even if they reveal a snippet of their procedure, the people who track down this criminals aren't dumb so we can be assured that they're going to only improve.

[Wexnident]

I think it depends on how good you are at clearing your tracks and who exactly you're trying to run from? I mean, most caught cases of criminals are honestly just because of a slipup or an inside job, and not exactly because the government was able to trace them perfectly. It's basically a waiting game for them, trying to find a mistake they'd do and then capitalize on that mistake to trace everything back down from where it came from to where they are or who they are. That's how they do their jobs.

[kentrolla]

With this scenario, scammers are now extra careful when cashing out their stolen crypto but what I want is they will be all caught with their own mistakes. That's right, we don't need to know about how the police caught them or what strategies they used. because it's crucial tools for their next target and they might fail to track the others. This is how it should be when they publish it, they need to emphasize their criminal act and not to put the blame on bitcoin.

Exactly but they still can use crypto for their nefarious purposes, if you look at bitcoin, it's still a pseudonymous cryptocurrency so the criminals still has a leeway for them to use. Pretty sure that we don't have any clue about how the police work even if they reveal a snippet of their procedure, the people who track down this criminals aren't dumb so we can be assured that they're going to only improve.

Criminals will always find one or the other way to continue their activities and we cannot deny the fact it can be used by criminals and others involved in money laundering which cannot be stopped unless crypto is centralized which will make it no different than a bank or stock market. We should be more focussed on the merits of bitcoin and crypto in general because criminals were operating even before the evolution of crypto and will be active even if crypto disappears one day. We have to live with it as too many restrictions or checks will kill the essence of decentralisation.

[Kelvinid]

Was it possible for them to have avoided getting caught? I think so. The reason why they're caught is more of their own faults rather than the capabilities of the FBI to track them down. Of course it is very hard to be extremely careful every step of the way. It might even be next to impossible to avoid committing an act of negligence or carelessness forever. It is hard not to commit a mistake and leave a trace. But it could be done.

If they are not been suspected of suspicious activities leading to the exchanges reports, they are still free till now. But yes, they leave such traces that could help the FBI to detect the couple's fraud activities. Honestly, they are not too smart to hide their doings but they are too bold enough to leave such a trace.

Even we think it was a success story for the FBI in hunting criminals like them, keeping anonymous won't easily give them the idea of who are they. But with their simple mistake could somewhat give a hint to the authorities and that is the reason why they end up getting caught.

[Betwrong]

It's great that criminals can't hide behind the network of decentralized computers. It's comforting to see that cyber criminals are getting caught and thrown inside prison. The cyber criminals must understand that they can't run forever and enforcement agencies have tools to track them down.

I would recommend to read this article to get better insight on how DOJ had tracked them down.

https://time.com/6146749/cryptocurrency-laundering-bitfinex-hack/

I agree with you. Stealing has been romanticized for centuries in books and movies, so it's no wonder some people don't feel bad about robbing others, but at least they can learn through getting prison sentences for their deeds.

Here's another good article on the subject:

https://www.elliptic.co/blog/elliptic-analysis-bitcoin-bitfinex-theft

It's about blockchain analytics used to identify the thieves.

Overall I'm glad that usage of cryptocurrency makes the lives of criminals harder, not easier as some journalists say.

[mindrust]

I don't believe for a second that these morons pulled the biggest fraud in crypto history. Look at their faces. Look at their clothes. What do you see? I see 2 average Joes. This whole could be staged. Could be anything. Maybe the real frauds are still out there. Maybe there weren't any scams but only insider activity. All I know is these people had nothing to do with it.

[Slow death]

this is a story that even surprised me because many scammers who managed to steal a lot of money were not found and arrested until today, I'm talking for example about the case of ponzi scheme HashOcean Cloud Mining Scam and so many other cases of hack, theft and that never were found, the truth and that cryptocurrencies make life easier for scammers, those guys who got arrested were unlucky, this is something that can happen, but in most cases scammers are not punished and not even found

[e_abrams]

I think the media exaggerates a little how much cryptos are related to various shady activities because they focus on every scandal but the vast majority of the industry is not, in fact, part of a scandal. This leaves the public with a skewed impression about cryptocurrencies.

Recently, actually, a report came out about what part of the global crypto transactions have been part of a money-laundering scheme. The actual data was very interesting. In 2021 fraudulent money laundering of cryptos was worth more than 8.6 billion US dollars, which is 30% higher than the number gathered in 2020 6.6 billion US dollars. Both of these numbers seem eye-watering, but in context it is not quite like that -  in 2021 alone, money laundering of digital assets accounts for just 0.05% of all crypto-related global transactions, which is but a drop in the bucket.

In comparison, the UN Office of Drugs and Crime has released a report in which it has estimated that between 800 billion US dollars and 2trillion USD worth of fiats are laundered each year. This is equal to 5% of the global GDP.

I think that changes the perspective a little?

[shavebob77]

i've read a lot of articles about this couple,i bet $1000 they're just the "fall guys",i mean you're saying that you have all the knowledge to single handled hack a entire exchange and you let your private keys on a online cloud service using your REAL EMAIL address connected to other addresses used to launder the money? something just doesn't seem right...

[rdbase]

i've read a lot of articles about this couple,i bet $1000 they're just the "fall guys",i mean you're saying that you have all the knowledge to single handled hack a entire exchange and you let your private keys on a online cloud service using your REAL EMAIL address connected to other addresses used to launder the money? something just doesn't seem right...

There was story making the rounds that there were brothers from Israel who were in on the theft.
https://www.bitdefender.com/blog/hotforsecurity/two-brothers-arrested-for-bitfinex-hack-and-multi-year-cryptocurrency-phishing-campaign
But that was back in 2019 so they probably couldn't account for the entire amount so moved on to these two linking them by the coins which moved to wallet addresses instead.