Man who stole and laundered roughly $1B in bitcoin is sentenced to 5 years in prison
A computer expert who stole bitcoin worth billions of dollars at current prices — and then spent years laundering some of the hacked cryptocurrency with help from his wife — was sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison. Ilya Lichtenstein masterminded one of the largest-ever thefts from a virtual currency exchange before he and his wife, Heather Rhiannon Morgan, carried out an elaborate scheme to liquidate the stolen funds, according to federal prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly told Lichtenstein that his theft was “meticulously planned” and not an impulsive act.