The founder of the BitGrail cryptocurrency exchange, Francesco Firano, became a suspect in the case of hacking the platform in 2018 and stealing € 120 million. This is reported by Reuters with reference to the Italian police.

According to investigators, Firano participated in a series of attacks on his own exchange. He is suspected of fraud, fictitious bankruptcy and money laundering.

“It is unclear whether he took an active role in the theft or simply decided not to improve security measures after he discovered it,” said the director of the National Center for Cybercrime, Ivano Gabrielli.

The police noted that it would not have been difficult to prevent the re-hacking of BitGrail, but Firano “deliberately did not do it.” The department considers the attack on the stock exchange to be the largest in Italy.

In February 2018, the trading platform reported a loss of 17 million XRB (Nano/ RaiBlocks). The amount of damage at that time was $170 million.

In May of the same year, the court banned the exchange from resuming operations.

A month later, the authorities seized bitcoins from BitGrail wallets.

Recall that in January 2019, the platform and its owner were declared bankrupt and ordered to return to customers the maximum possible amount of the lost $ 170 million.