FBI seizes $3.6bn in Bitcoin after New York 'tech couple' arrested over Bitfinex robbery Two New York-based "tech entrepreneurs" were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly conspiring to launder $4.5bn in stolen cryptocurrency, the US Department of Justice said, adding it's so far recovered $3.6bn in purloined digicash - based on current prices. Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and Heather Morgan, 31, husband and wife, are …
Or a cloud provider in any other country where a search warrant could be obtained.
It just goes to show that law enforcement can get results by simply using the age-old due process.
And it also goes to show that somebody else's computer you don't control is somebody else's computer you don't control.
The fact it was online at all to quote the film hackers was galactically stupid (ilya should be renamed joey)
The fact it was on a server not under your own control an even bigger wtf
I mean smart enough to hack/launder funds, dumb enough to not use a bulletproof provider, or have an offline stash.
I mean it wouldn't be hard to have had a really hard to find backup, say on cassette, mixed in with a box of retro games, keys flashed to the user cert store on rfid cards, book cypher, buried usb key, copy sent to Russia, hardcopy with offset character substitution using a favourite integer etc. Nah fuck that will just keep it safe on dropbox
"I mean it wouldn't be hard to have had a really hard to find backup, say on cassette, mixed in with a box of retro games, keys flashed to the user cert store on rfid cards, book cypher, buried usb key, copy sent to Russia, hardcopy with offset character substitution using a favourite integer etc. Nah fuck that will just keep it safe on dropbox"
Suspiciously specific...
This post has been deleted by its author
After getting their Bitcoin tracing skills up to speed will the FBI work back further to trace the history of the loot before it was deposited in the exchange? It would be a shame to hand it all back if they can't be sure it was legit before it was nicked by these two.
Cynical? Moi?
I'm surprised she's not being charged for a lack of talent and crimes against good taste.
If those were really crimes, the prisons would be very, very, very full.
Although filming Big Brother would become easier. It's just that when the public voted someone out, all that would happen is they would be moved to a different cell block.
I'm much more interested to know what encryption method was used on the incriminating file.
They must have had a whole lotta faith in the encryption method to put it in the "cloud" like that.
Depending on how the file in question was decrypted it could dwarf the story of the billions in crypto taken.
Probably double-ROT13 on an Excel file with a password.
Why would someone steal fake money from a system whose whole point appears to be to leave an immutable trail of tears^H^H^H^Hransactions?
And if one did, why would the very first step not be to figure out how to convert to tangible assets, followed by a nice quiet trip to the Grand Caymans or wherever people go these days, now that the Swiss have given up on strict banking privacy?
I imagine one could realize a few hundred $k of "foreign investment income" every year, declare it to the IRS and actually pay the taxes on their ill-gotten gains so they don't incur the wrath of that particular agency, and go on about their lives without drawing too much attention. Greedy people always make the stupidest mistakes though, it seems.
Do they go back to the original owners?
Do they get kept by the govt.?
Are they just "cancelled", like one could burn paper notes?
Just thinking throwing $5.6b (or whatever the current astronomical value is) back in to the system has got to have a fair bit of an affect on the valuation?
Three good questions there, Sampler .
When the Feds keep the loot would that be akin to common theft and/or civil forfeiture and extraordinarily render them as no greater than modern day 0day pirates disproving that old adage that crime doesn't pay?
That would be a Great Game Changer and herald a Quantum Shift in the State and Direction of Future Play introducing as it does, another unpopular enemy force rather than supporting ally.
Who would know the definite answers to those questions, able to give everyone something they can rightly believe is honest and true?
There is an inequitable anomaly highlighted in this tale though, and it is not at all funny, for whenever banks/bankers are caught laundering criminal proceeds hardly anyone is ever arrested to face jail time. The banks/bankers/perps just pay off the system with a chickenfeed fine from the greater stashes they have cashed and are holding for customer clients. It is never anything publicly preventative and privately punitive. And if that is acceptable and a default norm, then does justice and law enforcement have more than just a major systemic problem and a half to assess and address in order not to be realised as cuckolds and conveniently useless blunt tools being played as prime premium fools.
The American agencies can't help throwing themselves boastful compliments along the way.
As indeed our Tory administration is wont to do.
I dunno if Big Talking still impresses the simpler type of American rube trapped in the tent, but to normal people the effect is nauseating and tempting hubris.
"33. If you're leaving tracks, [it's safest to assume] you're being followed."
--Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary in-universe tome of wisdom The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries
The fact that they tried to hide behind the ultimate privacy coin Monero and were still found out tells you something about the crumbs you leave behind and watching out for the big picture, not getting too confident in your mathematical cryptography.
Maybe the size of the trades. It may also be related to a reverse audit of the found BTC - get the details either side and dont worry about what went on inbetween.
In the UK you can be forced to reveal the source of your sudden wealth or have it seized. Other countries just take it or torture you and your family until you hand it over.
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