crypto haul; couple faces charges of conspiring to launder money
The world’s biggest-ever cryptocurrency haul, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has seized and recovered over 94,000 Bitcoins worth $3.6 billion, stolen from crypto exchange Bitfinex by a US-based entrepreneur couple in 2016. The couple named Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and Heather Morgan, 31 were arrested under the conspiring to launder money and to defraud the US government, facing up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
They were arrested in Manhattan for an alleged conspiracy to launder cryptocurrency that was stolen during the 2016 hack of Bitfinex, a virtual currency exchange, presently valued at approximately $4.5 billion. According to court documents, Lichtenstein and Morgan allegedly conspired to launder the proceeds of 119,754 bitcoin that were stolen from Bitfinex’s platform after a hacker breached Bitfinex’s systems and initiated more than 2,000 unauthorised transactions.
Over the last five years, approximately 25,000 of those stolen Bitcoins were transferred out of Lichtenstein’s wallet via a complicated money laundering process that ended with some of the stolen funds being deposited into financial accounts controlled by Lichtenstein and Morgan.
