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mahatmakanejeeves

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37. A Crucial Clue in the $4.5 Billion Bitcoin Heist: A $500 Walmart Gift Card

Wed Feb 16, 2022, 10:08 AM

Feb 2022

U.S.

A Crucial Clue in the $4.5 Billion Bitcoin Heist: A $500 Walmart Gift Card

Increasingly sophisticated tools and some gift cards helped lead investigators to charge a young couple with conspiring to launder billions

By James Fanelli, Ben Foldy and Dustin Volz
james.fanelli@wsj.com
ben.foldy@wsj.com
https://twitter.com/dnvolz
dustin.volz@wsj.com
Feb. 15, 2022 3:29 pm ET

Federal investigators spent years hunting for clues in the 2016 hacking of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange, when thieves stole bitcoin now worth $4.5 billion. In the end, what helped lead them to two suspects was something much more quotidian: a $500 Walmart gift card.

That card and more than a dozen others like it, including for Uber , Hotels.com and PlayStation, were linked to emails and cloud service providers belonging to a young Manhattan couple, Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather R. Morgan, according to a criminal complaint. Authorities arrested the couple after seizing $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin allegedly in their control—the Justice Department’s largest financial seizure ever.

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Feds arrest married couple, seize $3.6 billion in hacked bitcoin funds [View all] Zorro Feb 2022 OP

A want no part of this. Nope. secondwind Feb 2022 #1

A pretty big f'n deal, this. ancianita Feb 2022 #2

Despite what some think, crypto is not untracable. n/t PoliticAverse Feb 2022 #3

Exactly. Few people seem to know that those "wallets" are all traceable. PSPS Feb 2022 #24

Could have gotten away with it too... JohnnyRingo Feb 2022 #4

To get away with it they would have had to move to Russia and bribe officials. Beakybird Feb 2022 #5

Russian national Ilya Lichtenstein ToxMarz Feb 2022 #11

Or Mar-ma-lardo. SergeStorms Feb 2022 #19

The most secure, unhackable, cheapest, most reliable way to move money bucolic_frolic Feb 2022 #6

Just seems to me that at SOME point someone will figure out the program. oldsoftie Feb 2022 #10

The cryptography behind bitcoin is considered very solid localroger Feb 2022 #33

But how could it be more secure than our own military or banking programs? oldsoftie Feb 2022 #34

Cryptographic strength can become dated localroger Feb 2022 #35

Actually, Bitcoin wasn't hacked; the exchange was hacked localroger Feb 2022 #14

They like saying they stole the money from the bank but the vault was safe. /nt bucolic_frolic Feb 2022 #16

Not really. You can use bitcoin without using an exchange. localroger Feb 2022 #18

Precisely, also before required 2FA security on most exchanges JCMach1 Feb 2022 #21

Crypto seems related to a Ponzi scheme to me. justhanginon Feb 2022 #7

;-{)🖖‍ Goonch Feb 2022 #8

Some folks have lost their bitcoins because they lost their password. keithbvadu2 Feb 2022 #9

Such hacking has always involved something off the blockchain localroger Feb 2022 #30

I remember reading about 1 person . . . toopers Feb 2022 #36

lol she has a TikTok mahatmakanejeeves Feb 2022 #12

How do you "seize" imaginary currency??? TNNurse Feb 2022 #13

Do you mean, like, dollars? Tommymac Feb 2022 #22

The government calls crypto assets securities, even if their only value is some greater fool to sell Eugene Feb 2022 #31

From the DoJ PR nitpicker Feb 2022 #15

Like many, they didn't get caught stealing, they got caught trying to become honest. Tommymac Feb 2022 #23

They were probably really undone by the explosive rise in value localroger Feb 2022 #28

I've never trusted crypto or gotten involved in it IronLionZion Feb 2022 #17

They can't, unless you are sloppy localroger Feb 2022 #32

Cryptocurrencies: Millions of tons of Methane (CH4) released by melting permafrost... Justice matters. Feb 2022 #20

A Russian National and bitcoin. Not shocked. Get rid of bitcoin rockfordfile Feb 2022 #25

Why is the DOJ involved? Mawspam2 Feb 2022 #26

Because they didn't hack the cryptocurrency itself, they hacked an exchange localroger Feb 2022 #29

Our national interest is recovering it from the criminal IbogaProject Feb 2022 #27

A Crucial Clue in the $4.5 Billion Bitcoin Heist: A $500 Walmart Gift Card mahatmakanejeeves Feb 2022 #37