NYC Couple Charged With Money Laundering In $4.5 Billion Bitfinex Hack

The Justice Department has announced that it has arrested a New York couple connected to the 2016 hack of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. The hack was the second-biggest breach of a Bitcoin exchange platform and resulted in 119,754 bitcoins being stolen. The total value of the stolen coins is reportedly now around $4.5 billion.

The Justice Department announced Tuesday that it had seized $3.6 billion of the stolen coins, and arrested married couple Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein, 34, and Heather Morgan, 31, under suspicion of conspiracy to launder money and to defraud the U.S. government. If convicted, they could face up to 25 years in prison.

Paul M. Abbate, Deputy Director of the FBI, said “today’s case is a reminder that the FBI has tools to follow the digital trail, wherever it may lead.” According to authorities, a hacker sent proceeds from the hack to a digital wallet controlled by Lichtenstein. He then allegedly went on to move some of the bitcoins into different accounts and converted them into other types of currencies to cover their tracks. Agents were able to recover the non-laundered bitcoins, which totaled about 94,000.

Both Lichtenstein and Morgan are involved in the tech industry. On Linkedin, Lichtenstein is credited as a founder, advisor and investor of several startups beginning in 2011, and most recently was an investor for Demandpath. Morgan, along with rapping under the alias Razzlekkhan, is an entrepreneur who has founded companies of her own and also operates a TikTok account providing fans with financial advice.

Along with her many other hustles, Morgan also once penned an article for Forbes titled “Experts Share Tips To Protect Your Business From Cybercriminals.” Clearly, Bitinfex would have benefitted from some of those pointers back in 2016. Morgan and Lichtenstein made preliminary appearances in Manhattan federal court Tuesday afternoon.