In 2014, the crypto exchange Mt. Gox bankrupted by a series of hacks. That was now 9 years ago, but the situation has still not been fully resolved. Two perpetrators have now been identified and appear to be Russian. After the hack, they also ran an illegal crypto exchange.
Two Doers Mt. Gox hack found
This is evident from a press release of the United States Department of Justice. The two Russians Alexey Bilyuchenko (43) and Alexander Verner (29) samples from 2011 until the bankruptcy of MT. Gox about 647,000 bitcoin (BTC). Bilyuchenko then set up the infamous exchange BTC-e together with the help of this money and the Russian Alexander Vinnik. At least 300,000 BTC of the stolen tokens went to this new company.
The Ministry of Justice already announced in 2017 that this trading platform was laundering large amounts of money for cybercriminals worldwide. The vast majority of the coins were converted into fiat currency after laundering. Bilyuchenko is said to have been arrested in Russia in 2019 for running this exchange.
Verner’s whereabouts cannot be deduced from the press release. Others are also said to be involved in the hacks, but they are not named. It is possible that some of the suspects are now in Russia. Due to the geopolitical situation between the United States and Russia, it remains to be seen whether any extradition will take place.
Mt. Gox fiasco still unsolved
The various hacks took place up to 2014, when Mt. Gox it got too much and filed for bankruptcy. It had lost a total of more than 800,000 BTC from customers. Thus, for almost the entire amount, the now revealed individuals were responsible.
Since then, creditors are still trying to get their money back. Former customers were able to recover part of their coins and/or fiat currency through the courtroom, but this has since been postponed several times. According to the current schedule, the distribution of the remaining bitcoins (BTC), bitcoins cash (BCH) and US dollars will take place on October 31, 2023.