Musk Tweets Hitler Meme Over Canadian Crypto Seizure And Gift Card Revealed Identities Bitfinex Hacker Couple

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Last Updated on 18 February 2022 by CryptoTips.eu

Jeroen Kok

Jeroen is one of the lead copywriters on Cryptotips.eu and discusses all recent events in the crypto market. This includes news updates, but also price analyzes and more. He developed his passion for cryptocurrency during the bull run in 2017. He has learned a lot since then. The combination of cryptocurrency and creative writing is perfect for Jeroen and an excellent way to share his knowledge with a wide audience. Find me on LinkedIn / [email protected]
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In an apparently reply to a Coindesk story describing how the Canadian government seized crypto wallets trying to fund the Freedom Convoy (a story we also covered yesterday). Tesla CEO Elon Musk got himself into trouble by tweeting a meme comparing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler. In the now deleted tweet, a picture of the German dictator was shown with the text: stop comparing me to Justin Trudeau, I had a budget.

The original tweet can still be seen on various social media posts.

Meanwhile Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocoins fell over geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Stock markets in the US knew one of their worst days of the year.

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$3 billion at disposal

Earlier this week, District of Columbia District Court Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell decided to keep Ilya Lichtenstein in prison, while his wife, aspiring rapper and influencer Heather Morgan, was given a conditional release on a $3 million bail.

The judge considered that Ilya Lichtenstein had the motivation and the resources necessary to flee justice. With over $3 billion in funds at his disposal, it is easy to see why the young hacker would want to do that.

The couple are now officially charged with conspiracy to launder and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan are not accused of the Bitfinex hack itself just yet. The duo face a sentence of up to 20 years (for him) and five years (for her) in prison respectively.

Walmart gift card

Funnily enough, it appeared to have been a $500 Walmart gift card that led the FBI to the hacking couple.

According to the official government document (Statement of Facts), the couple “layered” and “chain-hopped” the stolen Bitcoins into virtual wallets using the “darknet market AlphaBay”. Afterwards they transferred it into accounts and then converted that into fiat currency and gift cards.

That Walmart card and more than a dozen others like it, including for Uber , Hotels.com and PlayStation, were linked to emails and cloud service providers belonging to the young Manhattan couple. Unfortunately, they also linked that email to a Bitcoin address on the darknet market AlphaBay.

Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan are now suspected of having stolen some, by today’s value, $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin from Bitfinex (at the time of Bitcoin’s all-time-high, the value would have been $5 billion).