According to Bloomberg News, Morgan and Lichtenstein are facing serious charges, and if the charges are proved, they could face imprisonment for 20 years. As per estimates of the US Department of Justice, the value of the stolen Bitcoins is worth $4.5 billion according to recent prevailing prices in the market.
Prosecutors have revealed that so far, they have been able to recover more than 94,000, worth $3.6 billion, making the seizure one of the largest financial seizures ever. The escalating value of Bitcoins proves that the crypto boom has increased over the last six years since the time was initially stolen. The hackers are still unknown when they had stolen the Bitcoins from the crypto exchange Bitfinex. When stealing the digital currency, the value was $71 million.
Bloomberg News reports that what happens to assets that have been recovered in theft and one that has increased in value by 6,200%? It is unclear what the Bitfinex users who had lost their money will get back in return. However, Bitfinex stated that it would adopt legal processes to establish rights to the stolen Bitcoin returns.
The eyes of the exchange had already compensated the users if not directly replacing the Bitcoins but using Bitfinex IOU tokens that could be redeemed later at a ratio of one for every dollar lost. While few traders traded the assets for quite some time, others had converted them into Bitfinex capital stock, parent firm iFinex. This, in turn, offered many the opportunity to receive another token from which they would benefit from the recovery of funds potentially.
Some clients have asked for their original coins back, arguing that it would be a lot better for them if they the original coins instead of the replacement token. Whatever be the case, it is understood that a lengthy legal process is awaited.
Attempts made by Morgan and Lichtenstein to redeem the Bitcoins on various exchanges to cash them led to probing questions about the origin of the tokens.
