DOJ announces arrests in alleged $4.5 billion cryptocurrency laundering scheme – By Alexander Mallin (ABC News) / February 8, 2022
A New York City couple is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday afternoon.
The Justice Department on Tuesday announced the arrests of a New York couple charged with conspiring to launder cryptocurrency presently valued at $4.5 billion — stolen during the 2016 hack of Bitfinex — marking the “largest ever” financial seizure by the department.
Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife Heather Morgan, 31, were arrested Tuesday morning in Manhattan and will make their initial appearances in court Tuesday afternoon, the DOJ said.
They are alleged to have conspired to launder the proceeds of 119,754 bitcoin stolen from Bitfinex’s platform after its systems were breached in August 2016, and a hacker initiated more than 2000 unauthorized Bitcoin transactions.
The hacker, not identified in the criminal complaint, then allegedly sent the bitcoin proceeds to a digital wallet under Lichtenstein’s control and for the last five years, prosecutors allege, he had laundered roughly 25,000 of the stolen bitcoins with some of the funds being directed to accounts under his and his wife’s control.