2 years ago
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said successful a statement Tuesday that it had recovered billions of dollars worthy of bitcoin stolen successful a 2016 hack of Bitfinex, the cryptocurrency speech affiliated with the world’s biggest stablecoin, Tether.
In the largest fiscal seizure ever, instrumentality enforcement has seized implicit $3.6 cardinal successful bitcoin retired of the full $4.5 cardinal drained successful the hack arsenic it arrested a mates successful Manhattan Tuesday greeting for an alleged conspiracy to launder the stolen coins. The 2 individuals are scheduled to look successful national tribunal successful the afternoon.
“Today’s arrests, and the department’s largest fiscal seizure ever, amusement that cryptocurrency is not a harmless haven for criminals,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said successful a statement. “In a futile effort to support integer anonymity, the defendants laundered stolen funds done a labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions. Thanks to the meticulous enactment of instrumentality enforcement, the section erstwhile again showed however it tin and volition travel the money, nary substance what signifier it takes.”
According to the DOJ, the seizure was imaginable done court-authorized hunt warrants of the couple’s online accounts, which gave peculiar agents entree to files containing the backstage keys that controlled the Bitcoin wallet utilized by the mates and allowed instrumentality enforcement to expanse much than 94,000 bitcoin that had been stolen from Bitfinex.
“In a methodical and calculated scheme, the defendants allegedly laundered and disguised their immense fortune,” Chief Jim Lee of IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) said successful a statement. “IRS-CI Cyber Crimes Unit peculiar agents person erstwhile again unraveled a blase laundering technique, enabling them to trace, entree and prehend the stolen funds, which has amounted to the largest cryptocurrency seizure to date, valued astatine much than $3.6 billion.”
Bitfinex said successful a statement that it had been cooperating with the DOJ since its probe began and volition proceed to bash so.
“If Bitfinex receives a betterment of the stolen bitcoin, arsenic described successful the UNUS SED LEO token achromatic paper, Bitfinex will, wrong 18 months of the day it receives that betterment usage an magnitude adjacent to 80% of the recovered nett funds to repurchase and pain outstanding UNUS SED LEO tokens,” per the statement. “These token repurchases tin beryllium accomplished successful unfastened marketplace transactions oregon by acquiring UNUS SED LEO successful over-the-counter trades, including straight trading bitcoin for UNUS SED LEO.”
According to Bitfinex’s website, “UNUS SED LEO is simply a inferior token designed to empower the Bitfinex assemblage and supply inferior for those seeking to maximize the output and capabilities of the Bitfinex trading platform.”
English (US) 