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

washingtonpost.com

451–460 of 901 posts

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

#451

fwiw, it appears one of the named here is a YC Alum: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=il https://www.linkedin.com/in/unrealdutch/

I love how the LinkedIn profile says “Interested in blockchain technology”. Ya don’t say…

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

#452
post #420

What's shocking to me is that the hack was actually real and not just an inside job by Bitfinex employees

For example Mt. Gox hack was also most probably hack not an inside job because that guy Mark Karpelès was so incompetent running the exchange no wonder it got hacked every now and then.

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

#453
post #398

Here's how the fed caught them: "The DOJ said it was able to seize the funds after an FBI search warrant of one of Lichtenstein's cloud storage accounts found a file containing cryptocurrency addresses and their corresponding private key that granted access to funds stored within."

This is really surprising, given that the Bitfinex hack was quite complex (unless they had inside knowledge). There are several ways to hold crypto for an amount as large (hardware wallet, brain wallet, pre-signed transactions, etc...)

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

#454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he instead started to draw NFTs, and sell it from his KYC account to his dirty wallet, could he still be convicted? What if only one out of every 100 NFTs his dirty wallet purchased was from his KYC account? Or what if he decided to create his own crypto-currency and it just so happened that his dirty wallet was an early investor of ETH to his fund. Seems like he could have done more to distance himself.

> Seems like he could have done more to distance himself. Bitcoin's public ledger makes transactions into prosecution futures. This is why it's such a poor choice for revolutionaries and funding the marginalized. You leave a permanent indelible public record in posterity that will in the course of time be de-anonymized, automatically, and traced back to you.

Is it illegal to sell your artwork at an auction, and a criminal happens to be the one to buy it? I honestly don't know.

is the onus on an artist or on an "auction house" to vet buyers. If post sale it turns out the money was fraudulent, does the artist need to pay it back?

In crypto terms. You the artist simply put a NFT up for auction at OpenSea. You the scammer happened to purchase the artwork on OpenSea. However KYC is not well enforced, enabling for money laundering between the two wallets.

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

#455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A fancy (or even basic) dictionary attack has a very high chance of working.

It doesn't unless you chose something stupid like "correct horse battery staple" or "word + word + number". 7 words chosen from 1000 word dictionary password encrypted AES 256 cannot be cracked with existing technology, 8 words impossible with future tech.

Yeah, but at the end of the day these keys have to be used by human beings so the passwords were likely something practically sized and easy to use.

Especially since in general the likeliest failure mode would be the user forgetting the password to their millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin keys, followed by someone attacking the password.

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

#457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

vitalik (ethereum founder) used an interesting system. He split the key in 2. Wrote both on paper. Gave 1 paper to family and kept the other. Even if the police raid him (hypothetically), they cannot raid the houses of his family and friends at the same time This way the police or anybody else cannot get your private key.

> Even if the police raid him (hypothetically), they cannot raid the houses of his family and friends at the same time ...why not? Police coordinate raids all the time.

The probability of Russian police coordinating a raid with the NYC police is 0.00%

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

#458

Why would a Russian national with so much BTC to launder, who hasn't touched it in 6 years suddenly perform the action from New York City of all places from within the USA.

Ilya is a Russian national? (Sorry, I hadn't sees that mentioned yet.)

Yep - dual citizen. Though via his LinkedIn, he went to at least High School and College in the US.

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

#459
post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I noticed both on twitter and his HN posts, there's a big gap between 2015 and 2019.

il on May 15, 2013 >As the anarchists and idealists on HN will soon learn, the decentralized nature of Bitcoin won't make a difference if anyone transmitting it is in violation of federal law. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5714963 Did he change his mind?

Sounds like he knew this all along but didn't care

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

#460
post #181
post #7

"Today Ilya Lichtenstein is the co-founder of the Y Combinator backed Mix Rank," One of the first Google results for the names returns 'Get your first $1 million in enterprise sales with zero marketing spend' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuIr5IFQ9Xg Heather R Morgan Serial entrepreneur SaaS Investor Razzlekhan = Surrealist Artist, Rapper & Fashion Designer with synesthesia Also Forbes writer https://www.inc.com/he…

I met Heather many years ago. It's a weird feeling to see a name you recognize in an announcement like this. We've lost touch long since so I have no comment.

> We've lost touch long since so I have no comment

But felt it was important enough to state that you know her? I'm not sure what your comment is supposed to be.

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