A married New York couple is making ready to plead guilty to expenses of conspiring to launder billions of dollars well worth of Bitcoin (BTC), which changed into stolen during the notorious 2016 hack of crypto alternate Bitfinex.
Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, who were charged in February last yr after investigators used software to trace stolen digital forex to debts the two owned, are getting ready for a plea deal, The Wall Street Journal said, citing a court docket report.
The defendants had been previously every charged with conspiracy to launder cash and conspiracy to defraud america.
Notably, they have been no longer implicated within the actual hacking of Bitfinex’s network, which noticed over $71 million worth of Bitcoin diverted through greater than 2,000 unauthorized transfers to an external account.
By the time of Morgan and Lichtenstein’s arrest, the stolen cryptocurrency had improved to a stunning $four.5 billion.
At the time, prosecutors stated have seized over $3.6 billion in Bitcoin related to the hack.Morgan, who has been placed below home confinement, and Lichtenstein, who has been detained considering being charged, will input their respective pleas on that date.
The particular charges to which they may admit have not been disclosed. Morgan’s legal professional declined to offer a remark, whilst the lawyers representing Lichtenstein did no longer reply to requests for comment.
The US Attorney’s workplace for the District of Columbia is liable for handling the case.
Who Are Morgan and Lichtenstein?
Morgan and Lichtenstein, who resided in a lower Manhattan rental on the time of their apprehension, have been concerned in marketing-associated organizations.
Morgan, under the moniker Razzlekhan, pursued a career as a rapper and, in one of her songs, cited herself because the “Crocodile of Wall Street,” dedicated to hackers and marketers.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Morgan has a Master of Arts diploma in global monetary development from the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and a Bachelor of Arts in international relations from the University of California, Davis, USA.
On the alternative hand, Morgan’s accomplice Lichtenstein is a tech entrepreneur and founding father of blockchain begin-up Endpass, a pass-platform offline password control app that seeks to “securely keep passwords” to “prevent fraud and terrorism.”
During the quest of the couple’s residence, investigators discovered a stash of burner telephones, $40,000 in coins, and an digital report containing faux identities used to open Bitcoin money owed.
Prosecutors additionally found out the lifestyles of a separate file that provided commands on purchasing passports thru the dark web.
