Russian-U.S. national Ilya Lichtenstein, who hacked a crypto exchange and stole nearly 120,000 bitcoin, claims he has been freed after only a year into his five-year sentence.
Lichtenstein posted on X late Thursday night, saying, “Thanks to President Trump’s First Step Act, I have been released from prison early.”
The admitted fraudster pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy charge and admitted to hacking crypto assets now valued in the billions of dollars," CNBC reported.
The Justice Department calculated the value at approximately $4.5 billion.
The First Step Act was a 2018 piece of legislation that allowed non-violent offenders to earn credits toward an early release.
"Allows certain prisoners to earn 10 days of time credits for each 30 days of successful participation in recidivism reduction programming or activities, including prison jobs. Allows these prisoners to apply their time credits to transfers into pre-release custody, which includes halfway houses and home confinement. Certain inmates are excluded from earning credits, including violent offenders, sex offenders, leaders or organizers of fentanyl or heroin trafficking rings, etc," the Justice Action Network described.
The goal of the program is to reduce recidivism rates.
“I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity as soon as I can,” Lichtenstein’s post continued. “To the supporters, thank you for everything. To the haters, I look forward to proving you wrong.”
In a statement to CNBC, a Trump administration official claimed Lichtenstein “has served significant time on his sentence ..."
Lichtenstein was able to count part of his time awaiting trial for his sentence. So, he was in jail after his 2022 arrest through his Nov. 2024 plea deal.
The official confirmed he was "currently on home confinement consistent with statute and Bureau of Prisons policies.”
Lichtenstein’s wife, Heather Morgan, also pleaded guilty to helping to launder funds. She too celebrated his release on X, saying, “The best New Years (sic) present I could get was finally having my husband home after 4 years of being apart.”
He has not received a pardon or commutation from President Donald Trump.
