Israeli Citizen Accused of Stealing Over $1.7 Million in Crypto

Eliyahu Gigi, a 31-year-old from Tel Aviv, has been charged with stealing over $1.7 billion in a variety of cryptocurrencies. Gigi allegedly stole Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Dash (DASH) from users in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. 

Lawyer Yeela Harel of the cyber department in the State Attorney's Office filed charges against Gigi on July 17, according to a report published the same day by Israeli business outlet Globes. Gigi has reportedly been charged with crimes including theft, fraud, and money laundering, among others.

According to the report, Harel’s indictment claims that Gigi set up a network of scam websites to steal crypto through the use of malware. He is accused of using a number of methods to cover his tracks, including employing remote servers and shuffling the stolen funds around through different wallets. 

Gigi and his brother, a demobilized soldier, were reportedly arrested in June. The pair were suspected of being involved in international phishing fraud, but Harel moved to indict only Gigi.

The police apparently first began to look into Gigi when they received information suggesting that he was dropping scam links on digital wallet forums. According to the report, Gigi would link to a website that appeared to have a downloadable wallet manager. However, Gigi appeared to have collected and misappropriated users’ account credentials to steal their crypto.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, an employee at Microsoft was recently arrested on suspicion of stealing $10 million in crypto. Volodymyr Kvashuk allegedly stole and flipped crypto gift cards for Microsoft products, selling them for a profit to customers over the Internet.