The much-awaited documentary Biggest Heist Ever was released on Netflix on December 6, 2024. After its release, Biggest Heist Ever has highlighted more questions rather than giving answers. Being a documentary, Biggest Heist Ever is a true story that chronicles the bitcoin heist worth $4.5 billion (in today's time) from cryptocurrency exchange firm Bitfinex in the year 2016 by hacker Ilya Lichtenstein in the United States. Since Biggest Heist Ever has put forward a plethora of questions, one person who has caught everyone's attention is Sheel Kohli.
Sheel Kohli has been featured in Netflix's Biggest Heist Ever. Due to his Indian-origin name, fans are also interested in knowing about Sheel Kohli. Since you have landed on this page, True Scoop assumes that you have already watched the documentary on Netflix and wondering about Biggest Heist Ever Real Story or Biggest Heist Ever True Story and about Sheel Kohli. Below is all about Sheel Kohli, who has been featured in the Netflix docudrama.
Bitfinex Bitcoin Heist 2016
Before talking about Sheel Kohli, let's understand the case in brief. Ilya Lichtenstein was a tech person before he met Heather Morgan after she secured an investment from an investor. After meeting first on an online video conference and then personally, Ilya and Heather fell in love with each other and later shifted to New York abruptly and started living a luxurious life together. After years of being under surveillance by the US Feds, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan were both arrested in February 2022. Ilya Lichtenstein has been in prison since his arrest.
Ilya was sentenced to five years in prison on November 15, 2024 after pleading guilty to hacking Bitfinex’s network and conspiracy to commit money laundering. On the other hand, Heather Morgan aka Razzlekhan who wasn’t involved in the actual hack, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Who is Sheel Kohli?
Netflix has mentioned Sheel Kohli as the Head of Communications of Bitfinex. Sheel Kohli has been featured in the Netflix movie to present Bitfinex' side of the story as it was this firm in Hong Kong that was hit by hacker Ilya during which 120,000 bitcoins were looted from the digital wallet on the company's server.
Apart from his Indian-origin name, Sheel Kohli's link to India is not known. However, who is Sheel Kohli today is a very well-known fact.
As per a profile of Sheel Kohli on the Cambodian Children's Fund Board of Directors, "He is a Communications and Marketing specialist. He spent 18 years at two of the world’s largest financial institutions, Credit Suisse and ING Group, and for the last few years, has been advising some of the most successful blockchain technology startups, Block.one, AAX and Diginex.
He started his career in journalism and remains passionate about current affairs and the power of knowledge to change outcomes. He sees CCF as the embodiment of that pursuit, transforming whole families and generations through the power of education. Sheel also loves cycling and running and you can often find him on his bike or running around the hills of Hong Kong."
Going by Sheel Kohli's LinkedIn profile, he went to Eastbourne College. After completing his education, Sheel has been at the top of many firms. From November 2005 to September 2018, Sheel was MD and head of Communications in the Asia Pacific Region of Credit Suisse in Hong Kong.
Thereafter, he became the CMO of Block.One. Again he became a CMO of AMX. Thereafter, he became CMO of EQONEX Group. Finally, in 2022, Sheel became Head of Communications and Marketing for Bitfinex.
Sheel's LinkedIn profile further suggests that he is based in the United Kingdom. However, going by his work profile, he mostly handles his work from Hong Kong.