Bitcoin Bank Heist

Imagine this: invisible robbers break into a bank and steal massive sacks of cash, but instead of running away with it they set their haul on the front stoop of the bank in a glass case. Everyone can see the money, but only the robbers can get to it. That’s how IRS Special Agent Chris Janczewski describes the 2016 Bitfinex heist when mystery hackers made out with over $70 million in Bitcoin. By 2020, their loot had ballooned to over $4 billion. With only digital footprints to follow, federal agents tracked the criminals through the blockchain, across the dark web, and up the service elevator of a posh Manhattan apartment building in a sleuthing story that ends at the Smithsonian.

Transcript

Guests:

• Ellen Feingold, curator of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
• Zia Faruqui, United States Magistrate Judge at the District Court for the District of Columbia 
• Ari Redbord, Ari Redbord is the Global Head of Policy at TRM Labs
• Chris Janczewski, Head of Global Investigations at TRM Labs, previously a special agent with IRS-CI Cyber Crimes Unit

Smithsonian Links:

• Read about the Smithsonian's acquistion of cool cryptocurrency objects in the Smithsonian Magazine.
• See IRS agent Chris Janczewski's computer in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History exhibition The Value of Money.

The renovated The Value of Money exhibition will be opening at the National Museum of American History on December 6, 2024. Check it out in person or online!