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A hack aimed at IRA Financial Trust has resulted in the theft of millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrencies from accounts of the firm’s retirement customers, according to news reports.
On February 8, unidentified hackers stole $21 million in Bitcoin and $15 million in Ethereum from the firm’s customers’ accounts, a person familiar with the matter tells Bloomberg.
IRA Financial Trust offers self-directed retirement accounts and lets customers buy crypto through a partnership with the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini Trust, according to the news service.
The company said the same day that it detected “suspicious activity that has affected a limited subset of our customers with accounts on the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange,” according to Bloomberg.
The company added that it began an investigation and contacted law enforcement, the news service writes.
A spokesperson for IRA Financial tells Bloomberg its own investigation is focused on security controls allegedly not offered by Gemini but declined to say what security measures IRA Financial has in place.
A Gemini spokesperson, however, says it offers institutional clients such as IRA Financial a variety of security controls, including two-factor authentication, according to the news service. Gemini added that it wasn’t breached and is ready to assist with IRA Financial’s investigation, Bloomberg writes.
“We are aware that IRA Financial experienced a security incident last week,” the company said in a statement cited by the news service. “While IRA Financial’s accounts are serviced on the Gemini platform, Gemini does not manage the security of IRA Financial’s systems.”
Users posting on Reddit who appeared to be IRA Financial customers wrote that the hackers were directing the stolen funds to a Roth IRA account with the name “Benjamin Choe,” which were then moved to services used to launder crypto, Bloomberg writes.
Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, which is tracking the stolen crypto, says they’re being laundered through Tornado, a so-called “mixer” service, according to the news service.
Tornado didn’t respond Bloomberg’s request for comment.
Some of the users also said they had cash stolen from the accounts, according to the news service.
The IRA Financial spokesperson didn’t offer details on any repayment plans to the customers, Bloomberg writes.
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