Feds arrest couple, seize $3.6B in hacked Bitcoin funds

Post by caseysoftware » Tue, Feb 08, 2022, 6:08 PM UTC

duxup wrote: post #74

caseysoftware wrote: post #65

I'm sitting here trying to understand their mindset. They had to know what kind of scrutiny would be on those coins forever. At the time of the theft, the coins are worth $100M+ and they can't touch them. Even worse, anything they do with them will be monitored, researched, dug into, and everything else from law enforcement, amateur detectives, and every major tech+crime group. Fast forward to now and the coins are w…

I was wondering about this. I would think the most obvious path would be to find some other criminals (now you've got new risks) who don't care about the provenance of the coins, will pay cash for some coins at a discount, and you somehow launder that cash.... Could at least get a couple bucks from it, possibly.

Post by wcoenen » Tue, Feb 08, 2022, 6:08 PM UTC

AlexanderTheGr8 wrote: post #117

zozbot234 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good guess is that "laundering" billions of dollars is inherently a non-trivial problem, and perhaps not feasible at all without cooperation from shady real-world actors outside the whole cryptocurrency ecosystem. This is actually good news for small-scale users who just want to keep their microtransactions reasonably private - the usual mechanisms might actually work well enough for that case.

I agree. But if not for privacy, why use crypto at all? Even bank accounts are reasonably private, if you are not doing anything considered suspicious by society. Also, with mixers such as tornado_cash, laundering money is , sadly , pretty trivial.

Post by paulpauper » Tue, Feb 08, 2022, 6:09 PM UTC

not2b wrote: post #128

AlexanderTheGr8 wrote: post #64

> “After the execution of court-authorized search warrants of online accounts controlled by Lichtenstein and Morgan, special agents obtained access to files within an online account controlled by Lichtenstein,” the press release said. “Those files contained the private keys required to access the digital wallet that directly received the funds stolen from Bitfinex, and allowed special agents to lawfully seize and rec…

The (alleged) criminal only has to make one mistake to get caught, if the pursuers are good. Steal enough money and the best pursuers will be assigned to catch the perp.

Post by sydthrowaway » Tue, Feb 08, 2022, 6:10 PM UTC

optimalsolver wrote: post #61

sydthrowaway wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thin red line between scamming and hustling.

Well, yes. If you can socially engineer customer support staff, you can do the same to venture capitalists.

Post by notch656a » Tue, Feb 08, 2022, 6:10 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #147

gruez wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like a win to me. The government had to physically go to their house and arrest them to get to their funds, whereas normally all they had to do was call up their bank and had their money frozen. Not to mention, this threat could have been easily mitigated by keeping your funds in a multsig wallet, with the keys distributed in multiple redundant locations.

> Not to mention, this threat could have been easily mitigated by keeping your funds in a multsig wallet, with the keys distributed in multiple redundant locations. And if you're released from prison and recover your Bitcoin, you will be arrested again for contempt of court or a similar charge.