According to the press release, the seizure was made by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Government continues to prosecute those involved in the Bitfinex hack, during which some 120,900 BTC were stolen. At the time, the stolen coins were valued at $72 million, but now their value is $3.6 billion. Bitfinex management said it is cooperating with law enforcement and investigative authorities to further recover the assets.
In accordance with Bitfinex’s contractual obligations to customers, the proceeds will be used to repay “Recovery Right Tokens” (RRT) issued by Bitfinex after the hack. Given that there are now 30 million RRTs in circulation, the amount returned is not enough to redeem all the RRT tokens. As such, all RRT holders should receive a pro rata redemption at $1 based on the number of those tokens, after which up to 80% of any remaining returned assets will be paid to UNUS SED LEO token holders.
“We are very pleased that we were able to successfully complete another phase of the return of crypto assets stolen from Bitfinex in 2016. This seizure proves that law enforcement officials are carefully tracking all proceeds from a crime committed against Bitfinex nearly seven years ago. We are taking every opportunity to recover as many stolen bitcoins as possible and redistribute them among RRT token holders,” said Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino.
Recall that last year police arrested a couple from New York, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, involved in the Bitfinex hack. More than 94,000 BTC worth $3.6 billion were seized from them. Heather Morgan was later released on $3 million bail.<br