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Ilya Lichtenstein has gone from high-profile defendant to govt look, testifying in opposition to a mixing service that he extinct to cowl laundered resources from the Bitfinex hack.
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He told a jury that Bitcoin Fog – a darknet favourite – wasn’t as factual as one of the most substitute mixers he extinct.
Ilya Lichtenstein, one of the most crypto replace’s most high-stakes criminals, is now serving to federal prosecutors in their case in opposition to Bitcoin Fog, one of the most integration companies and products he stated he’d extinct to veil resources.
Lichtenstein – known for the multi-billion Bitfinex hack of bitcoins price $3.6 billion when he pleaded guilty to cash laundering closing twelve months – looked this week in a Washington, D.C., trial of the accused operator of the integration service linked with darkweb criminal activity, primarily primarily based completely on a file from Bloomberg News.
Lichtenstein, who had been charged and pleaded guilty alongside his wife, Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan, told the jury that he extinct a form of mixers including Bitcoin Fog to “obfuscate” the funds from the Bitfinex hack, nonetheless it wasn’t his main manner of laundering, primarily primarily based completely on Bloomberg. He stated he moved on from that particular mixer as soon as he realized other companies and products “suited his purposes better.”
The U.S. Department of Justice’s seizure of the billions in crypto in the Bitfinex case changed into as soon as extraordinary.
In the Bitcoin Fog case, U.S. authorities had arrested and charged Roman Sterlingov, a dual Russian-Swedish nationwide, with cash laundering in his operation of the integration service in 2021. He’s now on trial if so.
Edited by Nikhilesh De.
