Prison math

Crypto theft was “the worst thing I had ever done.”

Credit: Getty Images | seksan Mongkhonkhamsao

On Thursday, Ilya Lichtenstein, who was at the center of a massive 2016 crypto heist worth billions at the time, wrote online that he is now out of prison and has changed his ways.

“Ten years ago, I decided that I would hack the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world,” Lichtenstein wrote on LinkedIn, detailing a time when his startup was barely making money and he decided to steal some instead.

“This was a terrible idea. It was the worst thing I had ever done,” he added. “It upended my life, the lives of people close to me, and affected thousands of users of the exchange. I know I disappointed a lot of people who believed in me and grossly misused my talents.”

In 2023, Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy in a wild 2016 scheme to steal 120,000 bitcoins (worth over $10 billion today) from Bitfinex, a cryptocurrency exchange. The pair were arrested at their Manhattan home in 2022.

Lichtenstein quickly flipped, helping the government recover the assets he had stolen and then helping the feds “on a variety of crypto cases.” He says that he enjoyed working with the government.

“When I was a black hat hacker, I was isolated and paranoid,” he wrote. “Working with the good guys, being part of a team solving a bigger problem felt surprisingly good. I realized that I could use my technical skills to make a difference.

Lichtenstein, who did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment, noted that he was sentenced to 60 months in prison and spent “nearly [four] years in some of the harshest jails in the country.” While in prison, Lichtenstein says that he spent as much time as he could in the prison library studying math books to engage his mind and distract himself from his surroundings.

The 38-year-old added that he was “released to home confinement earlier this month.”

Convicted hackers cooperating with federal authorities or turning their lives around is not without precedent.

One notable example is the late Kevin Mitnick, who was convicted of multiple phone and computer crime cases in the 1980s and 1990s. Mitnick eventually started his own security consulting company and became a penetration tester and public speaker for many years before his death in 2023.

“Now begins the real challenge of regaining the community’s trust,” Lichtenstein concluded, noting that he wants to work in cybersecurity.

“I think like an adversary,” he said. “I’ve been an adversary. Now I can use those same skills to stop the next billion-dollar hack.”