The US Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it had seized more than 94,000 bitcoins stolen in 2016. If calculated, the value of bitcoin reaches US $ 3.6 billion or Rp. 51.755 trillion (Exchange rate of Rp. 14,376 per US dollar).
That's a record confiscation. They said the bitcoins were confiscated after the Justice Department arrested Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife Heather Morgan, 31, a couple accused of trying to steal bitcoins in New York in 2016.
Lichtenstein and Morgan allegedly attempted to steal bitcoins with virtual currency exchange Bitfinex. Their theft was carried out during the 2016 hack.
"Today's arrest, and the Department's largest ever financial seizure. This shows cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals," deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco said in a statement.
Meanwhile, according to court documents, some of the stolen cryptocurrencies were sent to digital wallets controlled by Lichtenstein, who describes himself on social media as a "tech entrepreneur, coder, and investor."
About 25,000 stolen bitcoins were transferred out of the wallet over the next five years. The theft is carried out through a maze of cryptocurrency transactions.
The stolen funds are then used to purchase items such as gold or digital NFTs (non-exchangeable tokens).
This is an extraordinary successful case disclosure. The US government has cooperated with various parties in revealing this bitcoin theft case. But there are still several other theft cases that are still unsolved.