US prosecutors have submitted a request to a federal court to authorize the restitution of approximately 80% of the 119,754 bitcoins that were stolen during the 2016 Bitfinex crypto exchange hack. According to a court filing made on Tuesday, the 94,643 recovered bitcoins, which were traced back to the original wallet used by the hacker Ilya Lichtenstein, can be returned to Bitfinex as in-kind restitution once the court grants approval. Additionally, the Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Satoshi Vision, and Bitcoin Gold generated from hard forks following the hack will also be transferred to Bitfinex.
Lichtenstein was sentenced to 5 years in prison in November after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in 2023, while his wife, Heather Morgan, received an 18-month sentence for her role in laundering a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency. As part of their plea agreements, both Lichtenstein and Morgan agreed to forfeit the stolen cryptocurrency. However, the process of returning the remaining 25,000 bitcoins is expected to be more complex. Prosecutors stated that due to the defendants' attempts to launder these coins through sophisticated means, including peel chain transactions, non-compliant exchanges, darknet markets, mixers, and tumblers, as well as commingling funds in their business and personal accounts, the remaining bitcoins cannot be considered 'specific property' lost in the hack and must therefore be returned through an ancillary forfeiture proceeding.