Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan

February 9, 2022

The restoration of the stolen BTC from the 2016 Bitfinex hack was the information of the day.  That story’s protagonists, although, they’re legends within the making. You possibly can already inform that Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan will reside ceaselessly in meme kind. The story is so unlikely that many individuals within the Bitcoin group are uncertain that it occurred as reported. 

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Might this tech entrepreneur and this author/ rapper have hacked a cryptocurrency alternate? Or are they only the cash launderers for a much bigger operation? And, did they actually save the non-public keys to billions in BTC on the cloud? Or had been they arrange? Is regulation enforcement taking part in tips on the general public or are they the heroes of the day? 

We will’t reply these questions in the mean time. What we are able to do is discover the Bitfinex hackers’ social media to get a way of who they’re. However first, a abstract.

What’s The Bitfinex Hack All About? And, Why Is It Related Now?

The “Assertion Of Info” out there on the justice.gov web site does job setting the stage: 

“In or round August 2016, a hacker breached Sufferer VCE’s safety methods and infiltrated its infrastructure. Whereas inside Sufferer VCE’s community, the hacker was capable of provoke over 2,000 unauthorized BTC transactions, by which roughly 119,754 BTC was transferred from Sufferer VCE’s wallets4 to an out of doors pockets (Pockets 1CGA4s5 ). On the time of the breach, 119,754 BTC was valued at roughly $71 million. Because of the enhance within the value6 of BTC because the breach, the stolen funds are valued at over $4.5 billion as of February 2022.“

That cash ended up in a Bitcoin tackle related to Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, however discover that regulation enforcement by no means says they’re the Bitfinex hackers. The truth is, the couple has solely been charged with cash laundering. However, what’s the story right here? Our sister web site Bitcoinist does job thickening the plot: 

“The suspects had been arrested in Manhattan, New York. Deputy Legal professional Common Lisa Monaco referred to as the arrest, one of many largest by way of monetary seizure in historical past.

In that sense, the federal government official acknowledged that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies will not be a “secure haven” for criminals. The assertion contradicts others made by public officers, equivalent to Senator Elizabeth Warren, which have emphasised the alleged use of crypto in felony actions. Monaco added:

“In a futile effort to take care of digital anonymity, the defendants laundered stolen funds by a labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions. Because of the meticulous work of regulation enforcement, the division as soon as once more confirmed the way it can and can observe the cash, it doesn’t matter what kind it takes.”

Who Is Dutch Ilya Lichtenstein?

Reportedly, Ilya Lichtenstein is a tech entrepreneur and YCombinator alum. In his Twitter, he defines himself as a “Human angel investor, web3 developer, serial entrepreneur.” In his most important tweet, Dutch criticizes a New York Journal article by saying, “Oh god no. So many phrases about posering on Twitter, nearly nothing about how you can safe your keys, ship a transaction or get a Defi mortgage.”

Does that appear just like the Bitfinex hacker to you? Or, extra importantly, does that appear like an individual who would retailer his non-public keys within the cloud? We wouldn’t know. Nonetheless, the justice.org report says:

“On January 31, 2022, regulation enforcement gained entry to Pockets 1CGA4s by decrypting a file saved to LICHTENSTEIN’s cloud storage account,8 which had been obtained pursuant to a search warrant. The file contained an inventory of two,000 digital forex addresses, together with corresponding non-public keys.9 Blockchain evaluation confirmed that nearly all10 of these addresses had been immediately linked to the hack.”

In any case, in an article titled “Rethinking the Ethereum Pockets for Mass Adoption,” within the “Individuals are afraid of hackers and malware” part, Ilya Lichtenstein says:

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“The largest risk to mass adoption is surely, safety. It’s nonetheless means too arduous to correctly safe plain textual content non-public keys with out making a mistake alongside the best way. We can not anticipate mainstream customers to be safety consultants in a world the place the most typical password continues to be “123456”. Safety must be inbuilt to the product by design, not left up the person.”

BTCUSD price chart for 02/09/2022 - TradingView

BTC worth chart for 02/09/2022 on Oanda | Supply: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

Who Is Heather Morgan AKA Razzlekhan?

Reportedly, Heather Morgan is a profitable copywriter who grew her personal enterprise with out outdoors traders. On her Twitter web page, she defines herself as a “Serial entrepreneur. SaaS Investor. Razzlekhan. Surrealist Artist, Rapper & Trend Designer with synesthesia. Additionally Forbes author.” 

Her most important tweet says: “Good guiding compass to reside by: How a lot of a POSITIVE IMPACT does your life have on others, together with society & nature?”

The rationale she’s way more attention-grabbing than her husband is her rap alter ego, Razzlekhan. Her movies will not be out there on YouTube anymore, however you may nonetheless take heed to the songs on Soundcloud. And, some Twitter customers captured clips of the movies earlier than they disappeared:

Under, there’s one other observe. Above, there’s a pattern of the couple’s Tik Tok content material:

Extra attention-grabbing but, although, is Morgan’s profession as a Forbes author. In her article titled “Consultants Share Ideas To Shield Your Enterprise From Cybercriminals,” the supposed Bitfinex hacker says:

“Firms that didn’t have already got distributed groups or do business from home insurance policies have struggled to transition to going totally distant amidst the pandemic.

Cybercriminals and fraudsters are benefiting from this surprising disruption, resulting in a spike in scams and cybercrime.”

Wacky music apart, does that sound like an individual who would launder cash by present playing cards registered to her actual title? We wouldn’t know, however the justice.org report says:

“Data confirmed that parts of the $500 present card had been then redeemed by three transactions for private gadgets through the Walmart iPhone software. Every of the three redemptions had been performed on-line below MORGAN’s title, utilizing one in every of MORGAN’s e mail addresses, and offering MORGAN and LICHTENSTEIN’s house tackle for supply.”

What Does The Twitterati Assume About The Alleged Bitfinex Hackers?

Bitcoin investor Alistair Milne questions the couple’s Opsec, “Think about being a hacker (or cash launderer) and protecting the unencrypted non-public keys to $3.5billion of Bitcoin in a web-based account linked to your title.” Bitcoin safety knowledgeable Jameson Lopp questions their selection of location, “Think about sitting on $4,000,000,000 in stolen bitcoin, understanding you’re being hunted by nation states, and deciding that NYC is a great place to gap up.”

Featured Picture: The alleged Bitfinex hackers from this tweet | Charts by TradingView

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