Bitfinex Hack New Twist: Two Arrested in Israel After $1.5M Moved

One of the most prominent crypto cybercrimes in recent years took a dramatic turn on June 23, when two Israeli brothers were arrested in connection with the 2016 Bitfinex hack and other crypto-related phishing attacks.

The Gigi brothers also stand accused of the Bitfinex hack, which also involved identity theft and compromising of several users' accounts.

The arrests mark the second time the Bitfinex hack has been brought back into the open in the past few weeks.

On June 7, Cointelegraph reported that $1.5 million of the funds stolen in the hack had been moved from the hackers' personal wallets to an unknown address.

When Bitfinex first announced the hack in August 2016, it was the largest dollar-based exchange for Bitcoin in the world, and the $72 million theft was the second-biggest security compromise in the history of cryptocurrency.

In the days following the hack, Bitfinex offered a handsome reward for either the return of the funds or for information that could lead to them being located.

Left reeling in the wake of the hack, Bitfinex did not initially know how to deal with the financial loss and the consequent wave of angered customers.

The hack did not just affect the reputation of Bitfinex alone.

U.S. recovers small amountThe Bitfinex hack is not all doom and gloom, with the news that U.S. law enforcement tracked down and returned around $104,000, according to a Medium post published on Feb. 25.The exchange reported that just short of 27.7 Bitcoin were returned.

As per the post, Bitfinex was first informed by the U.S. government that it had accessed the funds believed to be proceeds from the 2016 hack in November 2018.