The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has stated that cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex may be the only party eligible for restitution for the 119,754 BTC stolen in the infamous 2016 hack. This announcement follows the guilty plea of Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Rhiannon Morgan, who were charged in 2022 with conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
For those who may not know, Lichtenstein and Morgan allegedly used advanced hacking tools to infiltrate Bitfinex and conduct over 2,000 transactions to transfer the stolen Bitcoin to a personal wallet. They then laundered the funds through various means, including converting some into gold coins, which Morgan buried.
Since their arrest in February 2022, the U.S. government has recovered approximately 95,000 stolen BTC, valued currently at $5.89 billion, and an additional $475 million in related assets. Right now, these coins are located in the “bc1qazcm” address, belonging to the FBI, according to Arkham Intelligence.
Despite the magnitude of the theft, the U.S. government today announced that it is not aware of any individuals other than Bitfinex who qualify as victims under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act (CVRA) or for restitution under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act (MVRA).
It is likely due to the fact that the U.S. Department of Justice added that Bitfinex had previously compensated affected customers by issuing “BFX” tokens, all of which were redeemed by April 2017. This compensation suggests that no additional victims may be eligible for restitution, leaving Bitfinex as the only party entitled to recover the seized Bitcoin.
