New York Couple Set to Plead Guilty in $4.5 Billion Bitcoin-Laundering Case

Jul 22, 2023

By Ruholamin Haqshanas | @ruholamin-haqshanas

A married New York couple is preparing to plead guilty to charges of conspiring to launder billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin (BTC), which was stolen during the notorious 2016 hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex. 

Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, who were charged in February last year after investigators used software to trace stolen digital currency to accounts the two owned, are preparing for a plea deal, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a court document. 

The defendants were previously each charged with conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to defraud the United States. 

Notably, they were not implicated in the actual hacking of Bitfinex's network, which saw over $71 million worth of Bitcoin diverted through more than 2,000 unauthorized transfers to an external account. 

By the time of Morgan and Lichtenstein's arrest, the stolen cryptocurrency had multiplied to a staggering $4.5 billion. 

At the time, prosecutors said have seized over $3.6 billion in Bitcoin associated with the hack.

US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has scheduled plea hearings for August 3, 2022. 

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