US prosecutors have asked a federal judge to greenlight the return of nearly 80% of the 119,754 bitcoins stolen in the 2016 hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex.

In a court filing Tuesday, prosecutors said the 94,643 bitcoins the government recovered from the original wallet used by the hacker, Ilya Lichtenstein, can be paid to Bitfinex as restitution in kind when the court gives the green light. Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Satoshi Vision and Bitcoin Gold generated via multiple hard forks after the hack will also be sent to Bitfinex.

Last November, Lichtenstein was sentenced to 5 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in 2023. His wife, Heather Morgan – better known by her rap moniker Razzlekhan – received an 18-month sentence for helping Lichtenstein do some money laundering. of the income from the hack. Both agreed to forfeit the stolen cryptocurrency as part of their plea agreements.

Returning the remaining 25,000 bitcoins will be more complicated.

In their filing, prosecutors said that because Lichtenstein and Morgan attempted to launder these coins via a variety of complex and technologically sophisticated means, including laundering through extensive peel chain transactions, non-compliant virtual currency exchanges, darknet markets and mixers and tumblers. , as well as interference with the defendants’ business and personal accounts” they cannot be characterized as the “specific property” lost by the hack and must therefore be returned via an accessory forfeiture procedure.