Newly-unsealed court documents have revealed fresh details about the 2011 Mt. Gox Bitcoin hack, one of the largest crypto thefts in history. The two indictments offer a rare glimpse into the U.S. law enforcement investigations into two of the oldest Bitcoin companies, Mt. Gox and BTC-e. According to the indictment, Alexander Vener and Alexey Bilyuchenko, along with their unnamed co-conspirators, funneled no less than 647,000 Bitcoin out of the Mt. Gox wallets. “Fully 300,000 of those coins went to BTC-e, another now-defunct crypto exchange,” the indictment reads.
The documents also show that Vener and Bilyuchenko used U.S. companies to liquidate the stolen Bitcoin, though the document does not name particular firms that might have been involved. The investigation report mentions transactions between BTC-e and BitInstant and Memory Dealers, two early and now-defunct Bitcoin companies.
The unsealed indictment also clears the names of several people who previously have been considered by the investigators as BTC-e’s operator Alexander Vinnik’s co-conspirators. According to the document, Vinnik used the identities of Andrey Nikonorov, Stanislav Golovanov, and Alexander Buyanov to cover his tracks.
The documents come to light as Alexander Vinnik is trying to return to his home country, Russia. Vinnik has spent almost five years in detention abroad and faces charges including operation of an unlicensed money services business, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering, and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions.