The arrest of suspects in the $4.5 billion Bitcoin fraud, which is recorded as the largest cryptocurrency fraud case ever, has started with Walmart gift card used by the suspect couple, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 16th (local time).
U.S. federal investigators have spent years trying to find clues to the hacking case of Bitfinex Cryptocurrency Exchange in 2016. At that time, about $4.5 billion of cryptocurrency theft occurred in Bitfinex at its current value.
Federal investigators arrested the suspects for a $500 Wal-Mart gift card. Investigators found something strange in Walmart gift cards and expanded the investigation.
The investigation found that in addition to Walmart gift cards, dozens of cards, including Weaver Card and Hotels Dotcom Card, were being used intensively by young couples living in Manhattan. Since then, investigators have begun tracking their online transactions.
Federal investigators tracked their online transactions and found out that they had washed a large amount of Bitcoin.
Immediately after confirming the allegations, investigators arrested Ilya Liechtenstein (34) and his wife Heather Morgan (31) on the 9th.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the bitcoins they tried to wash were hacked by Bitfinex in 2016. The 119,754 bitcoins they tried to wash were worth $71 million at the time, but as the price rose, they reportedly exceeded $4.5 billion.
The Ministry of Justice announced that it has seized 94,000 bitcoins from the couple and is currently worth about $3.6 billion. This is the largest-ever financial seizure in the history of the Ministry of Justice.
The couple took over the stolen Bitcoin into their digital wallets. After that, the couple created an online account with false identities and cashed Bitcoin through “Darknet.”
The Ministry of Justice did not disclose who was behind the initial hacking, but only confirmed that it was continuing its investigation.
The couple could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for money laundering and up to 5 years for deceiving the U.S. government, the Ministry of Justice said.
When the news broke, Netflix, a global streaming company, announced on the 12th that it would produce the couple’s story in a series.
Cryptocurrency is a preferred payment method for criminals due to anonymity, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that cryptocurrency is easier than normal currency tracking because all transactions are disclosed and leave permanent traces, WSJ said.
