U.S. prosecutors are seeking a federal judge's approval to return nearly 80% of the 119,754 bitcoins stolen in the 2016 hack of the crypto exchange Bitfinex. In a court filing, they stated that 94,643 bitcoins recovered from hacker Ilya Lichtenstein's original wallet could be sent back to Bitfinex as restitution, along with additional tokens from hard forks like Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold. Lichtenstein was sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering, while his wife, Heather Morgan, received an 18-month sentence for aiding in the laundering process. Both agreed to forfeit the stolen cryptocurrency in their plea deals. The return of the remaining 25,000 bitcoins is more complex because Lichtenstein and Morgan allegedly laundered these coins using sophisticated means. The prosecutors noted that this segment can't be classified as specific property lost in the hack and must go through a more intricate forfeiture process.

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