Topic: WSJ: How the Feds Tracked Hacked Bitfinex Funds - page 2. (Read 290 times)
@franky1. Do you trust this official press release to be the real story? I reckon real hackers and moneylaunderers who have control to more than $3 billion in bitcoin might be more careful and smarter. The skeptical me is beginning to think that those people in social media who speculate that they are only scapegoats might be correct. Would it be shocking if the hackers was a group commisioned by a corrupt government intelligence agency?
more direct link to the legal press release
https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1470186/download
entertaining part is.
they investigators tracked the theives spending to buy gift cards, using emails linked to a cloud hosting service where by investigators gained access to said cloud hosting and found the file containing the private keys and records of lots of accounts they used with different exchanges
a $500 giftcard cost them their freedom and $billions
https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1470186/download
entertaining part is.
they investigators tracked the theives spending to buy gift cards, using emails linked to a cloud hosting service where by investigators gained access to said cloud hosting and found the file containing the private keys and records of lots of accounts they used with different exchanges
Quote
On or about May 3, 2020, Cluster 36B6mu sent approximately 0.057 BTC directly
to VCE 10. VCE 10 is a business that sells prepaid gift cards in exchange for BTC. Records from
VCE 10 showed that this specific transaction was for the purchase of a $500 gift card to Walmart
from an account registered with an email address hosted by a provider in Russia and conducted
via an IP address resolving to a New York City-based cloud service provider (“Cloud Provider
1”). Records from Cloud Provider 1 showed that the IP address was leased by an account in the
name of LICHTENSTEIN and tied to Lichtenstein Email 1.
Lichtenstein Email 2 was held at a U.S.-based provider that offered email as well
as cloud storage services, among other products. In 2021, agents obtained a copy of the contents
of the cloud storage account pursuant to a search warrant. Upon reviewing the contents of the
account, agents confirmed that the account was used by LICHTENSTEIN. However, a significant
portion of the files were encrypted.
On or about January 31, 2022, law enforcement was able to decrypt several key
files contained within the account. Most notably, the account contained a file listing all of the
addresses within Wallet 1CGA4s and their corresponding private keys. Using this information,
law enforcement seized the remaining contents of the wallet, totaling approximately 94,636 BTC,
presently worth $3.629 billion,
to VCE 10. VCE 10 is a business that sells prepaid gift cards in exchange for BTC. Records from
VCE 10 showed that this specific transaction was for the purchase of a $500 gift card to Walmart
from an account registered with an email address hosted by a provider in Russia and conducted
via an IP address resolving to a New York City-based cloud service provider (“Cloud Provider
1”). Records from Cloud Provider 1 showed that the IP address was leased by an account in the
name of LICHTENSTEIN and tied to Lichtenstein Email 1.
Lichtenstein Email 2 was held at a U.S.-based provider that offered email as well
as cloud storage services, among other products. In 2021, agents obtained a copy of the contents
of the cloud storage account pursuant to a search warrant. Upon reviewing the contents of the
account, agents confirmed that the account was used by LICHTENSTEIN. However, a significant
portion of the files were encrypted.
On or about January 31, 2022, law enforcement was able to decrypt several key
files contained within the account. Most notably, the account contained a file listing all of the
addresses within Wallet 1CGA4s and their corresponding private keys. Using this information,
law enforcement seized the remaining contents of the wallet, totaling approximately 94,636 BTC,
presently worth $3.629 billion,
a $500 giftcard cost them their freedom and $billions
I have read different interpretations of the story. There were some people in social media that were saying they were the hackers and there are also some people that were saying that they were only the moneylaunderers for the hackers. However, much of those who said that they were accused as the hackers were also saying that they cannot be the real hackers. They speculated that they were only scapegoats. This is head shaking after watching their Tiktok videos.
It also appears Heather Morgan who is one of the accused was a Forbes contributor. This article was written by her hehehe.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/heathermorgan/2020/06/18/protect-your-business-from-cybercriminals/
It also appears Heather Morgan who is one of the accused was a Forbes contributor. This article was written by her hehehe.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/heathermorgan/2020/06/18/protect-your-business-from-cybercriminals/
She does seem to have a knack for worming her way into seemingly high places. Granted, writing for Forbes is not exactly an extraordinary achievement, but I imagine most smart people would find it rather hard to achieve that. Maybe she is talented at social engineering? Or maybe she uses her looks to disarm people and gain favors from beta males in the media?
She knows how to get past social hurdles, bare minimum. I also agree she was probably just a money launderer rather than the actual hacker of Bitfinex.
I have read different interpretations of the story. There were some people in social media that were saying they were the hackers and there are also some people that were saying that they were only the moneylaunderers for the hackers. However, much of those who said that they were accused as the hackers were also saying that they cannot be the real hackers. They speculated that they were only scapegoats. This is head shaking after watching their Tiktok videos.
It also appears Heather Morgan who is one of the accused was a Forbes contributor. This article was written by her hehehe.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/heathermorgan/2020/06/18/protect-your-business-from-cybercriminals/
It also appears Heather Morgan who is one of the accused was a Forbes contributor. This article was written by her hehehe.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/heathermorgan/2020/06/18/protect-your-business-from-cybercriminals/
Here is a good article by Paul Vigna of WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-feds-tracked-down-3-6-billion-in-stolen-bitcoin-11644447110
"The complaint includes flow charts that show the stolen funds moving from Bitfinex through AlphaBay, and across the bitcoin blockchain to the various other accounts the couple had allegedly set up.
"'This likely allowed [the government] to access AlphaBay’s internal transaction logs, which would enable them to trace the stolen Bitfinex funds,' Mr. Robinson said."
[...]
"The authorities said they traced the flow of funds through the unhosted wallets and across exchanges, according to the complaint, finding transactions that landed in accounts on exchanges that the two alleged launderers had in their real names. In one instance, according to the complaint, two of these accounts shared a login from the same location in New York."
[...]
"Mr. Lichtenstein and Ms. Morgan allegedly exchanged some of the bitcoin into other cryptocurrencies, according to the complaint, cashed some out via bitcoin ATMs and used the stolen funds to purchase nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. These digital collectibles have lately become another way crypto thieves launder digital money, the U.S. Treasury Department said last week in a report."
"The complaint includes flow charts that show the stolen funds moving from Bitfinex through AlphaBay, and across the bitcoin blockchain to the various other accounts the couple had allegedly set up.
"'This likely allowed [the government] to access AlphaBay’s internal transaction logs, which would enable them to trace the stolen Bitfinex funds,' Mr. Robinson said."
[...]
"The authorities said they traced the flow of funds through the unhosted wallets and across exchanges, according to the complaint, finding transactions that landed in accounts on exchanges that the two alleged launderers had in their real names. In one instance, according to the complaint, two of these accounts shared a login from the same location in New York."
[...]
"Mr. Lichtenstein and Ms. Morgan allegedly exchanged some of the bitcoin into other cryptocurrencies, according to the complaint, cashed some out via bitcoin ATMs and used the stolen funds to purchase nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. These digital collectibles have lately become another way crypto thieves launder digital money, the U.S. Treasury Department said last week in a report."
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