Hackers involved in Bitfinex theft issue public statement, reiterating that 120000 bitcoins were stolen solely by them

BlockBeats News: On December 19th, the Bitfinex hacker made his first public statement since his arrest. Ilya Lichtenstein reiterated that he had stolen 120000 bitcoins alone and denied the speculation in the Netflix documentary that his father was involved in the conspiracy and may belong to a Russian spy agency. This is his first public statement since his arrest in 2022. In a video statement, Lichtenstein said, "My father is not a hacker and he doesn't even know how to use Instagram. I sincerely apologize for all the pressure Bitfinex has put on them. I know what I did was wrong, but I still did it. Looking back at me at the time, I hate myself. I hate myself. For the past three years, I have been working hard to clear all assets and return them to the last Satoshi as required by the plea agreement, and I will continue to do so. BlockBeats previously reported that on August 4, 2023, the Office of Public Affairs of the US Department of Justice issued a statement stating that Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, a married couple in New York City, admitted to conspiring to launder money in a case involving the theft of approximately 120000 BTC from Bitfinex. The two were arrested in February 2022 after the government seized approximately 95000 stolen bitcoins from a cryptocurrency wallet controlled by the defendant. At the time of seizure, the recovered funds were worth approximately 3.6 billion US dollars. Since their arrest, the government has seized approximately $475 million related to this hacking attack. Lichtenstein used various advanced hacking tools and techniques to access Bitfinex's network. After entering its system, Lichtenstein fraudulently authorized over 2000 transactions, of which 119754 BTC were transferred from Bitfinex to a cryptocurrency wallet controlled by Lichtenstein. Subsequently, Lichtenstein took measures to cover up his tracks, returned to Bitfinex's network, and deleted access credentials and other log files that may have exposed himself to law enforcement.