Convicted Bitfinex hacker Ilya Lichtenstein has turn into a key authorities witness in a jury trial involving the alleged operator of crypto mixer Bitcoin Fog Roman Sterlingov, Bloomberg Information reported on Feb. 27.
US prosecutors arrested and charged Sterlingov in April 2021 over allegations that the mixer helped launder 1.2 million BTC — price $335 million on the time — linked to illicit actions on the darkish internet.
He’s at present dealing with a jury trial over felony prices.
Prosecutors arrested Lichtenstein and his spouse, Heather Morgan, in February 2022. He was convicted of the theft after coming into a responsible plea in August 2023. The couple conspired to launder $4.5 billion in Bitcoin they’d stolen from the crypto trade Bitfinex beginning in 2016.
Legal turned witness
In keeping with the report, Lichtenstein testified that he had used Bitcoin Fog roughly ten occasions to launder among the stolen funds. Nevertheless, he finally stopped utilizing it in favor of a extra preferable mixer referred to as Helix.
Authorities shut down each mixers in 2021; Helix’s creator additionally pleaded responsible that 12 months.
Lichtenstein moreover testified that he didn’t use Bitcoin Fog and different coin mixers for many of his laundering actions. As a substitute, he typically deposited cash to crypto trade accounts registered to identities he had bought on the darkish internet.
The Bitfinex hacker instructed the jury that he had by no means communicated with Sterlingov straight and didn’t know him. His testimony additionally revealed the explanations behind his choice to hack Bitfinex. Lichtenstein mentioned:
“On the time, my enterprise was struggling, and I used to be feeling very burnt out from it.”
Sterlingov faces a number of prices
A DOJ assertion signifies that Sterlingov faces a number of prices, together with cash laundering, working an unlicensed money-transmitting enterprise, and cash transmission and not using a license within the District of Columbia.
Sterlingov has vehemently denied these prices and claims innocence. His legal professionals have argued that no onerous proof — resembling eyewitness testimony or server logs — hyperlinks him to the crypto mixer.
As of Feb. 27, the trial is ongoing, and the jury has but to subject a verdict.
