Sashay, Shante, & Prêt-À-P0rter: (Ransomware, Gem Wear, and Underwear)

Measuring Blockchain’s Beneficial Impact on Disparate Industries

By: Jamil Hasan

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

According to an August 3, 2022 CNBC report, Ilya Lichtenstein told a U.S. court he was the individual behind an exploit of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016 which resulted in the theft of roughly 119,754 Bitcoin. Prosecutors had previously charged Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, with money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Shortly after the couple’s arrest in February 2022, I interviewed one guest in this book on my Crypto Hipster Podcast, Justin Choo of Cabital. We discussed the arrest and security measures that exchanges can put into place to help curb future cybersecurity threats and money laundering attempts. The couple laundered over 94,643 BTC of crypto from the Bitfinex hack worth roughly $54 million in 2016, which grew to over $2.7 billion at the time of their arrest. Lichtenstein reportedly converted some assets to gold coins, with Morgan burying them to hide them from authorities. During the early part of 2022, this case was one of the largest in crypto’s history, but with Celsius, FTX and other cases that spawned during 2022, it became easy to overlook this event. Still, Bitcoin and crypto’s role and relationship with cybersecurity, other commodities, and even fashion because of Morgan’s fancy TikTok videos gained increased popularity. The latest article on the case can be found at CoinTelegraph (https://cointelegraph.com/news/individual-charged-money-laundering-admits-hack-bitfinex-2016)

This fortieth book in the Crypto Hipster Chronicles series, entitled " Sashay, Shante, & Prêt-À-Porter: (Ransomware, Gem Wear, and Underwear)" draws from three Crypto Hipster Chronicles podcasts. Justin Choo, Head of Global Compliance at Cabital, shares securities lessons from the Bitfinex hack and the Mars Stealer malware threats. Chirag Jetani, co-founder, and head of operations at Diamante Blockchain, shares all about the application of NFTs and blockchain technology to the diamond mining industry. And Lindsey Mallon, co-founder at Splyt, discusses empowering women and creating fair labor in the fashion supply chain. I hope you find this book both educational and useful in your crypto and life journey.