US agencies find possible Indian link in 2016 Bitfinex bitcoin hack

moneycontrol.com:

A joint investigation by three US agencies -- Internal Revenue Service (Criminal Investigation), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)— revealed that eight email ids hosted by an India-based service provider were allegedly used to launder $4.5 billion worth of stolen cryptocurrency.

An American couple, Ilya “Dutch" Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan were arrested by the agencies for their alleged involvement in the laundering of the stolen bitcoins after the 2016 Bitfinex hack.

However, a senior Karnataka police official on condition of anonymity told News18 that no connection has yet been found between Srikrishna (Sriki) Ramesh, the infamous hacker, and the US couple. Sriki was arrested by the Bengaluru crime branch for allegedly procuring drugs using bitcoins in the darknet market.

“We are still investigating the claims made by Sriki that he had hacked the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange and what he used the bitcoins for,” the official said, refusing to comment on whether there were any links between the arrested American couple and Sriki.

In a voluntary statement, Sriki claimed to be the “first person to have hacked Bitfinex” and having done so twice, once in 2016 and then again in 2017. He further said that he used the money from the hack to support his lavish lifestyle and drug addiction. He also admitted to hacking the Karnataka government’s e-procurement portal in 2019 and transferring a total of around Rs 36 crore to the account of one Hemanth Mudappa.

In a political twist to the bitcoin fraud, the opposition parties in Karnataka --  the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) -- alleged that several of the bitcoins defrauded by Sriki, who is said to have close connections