The couple were accused of conspiring to launder Bitcoin that had been stolen in 2016 from Hong Kong-based Bitfinex, one of the world’s largest virtual currency exchanges.
The Justice Department said on Tuesday that it had seized over $3.6 billion worth of stolen Bitcoin and arrested a married couple accused of laundering the cryptocurrency that hackers had stolen six years ago. The couple, Ilya Lichtenstein,34, and Heather Morgan,31, were accused in a criminal complaint of conspiring to launder 119,754 Bitcoin that had been stolen in 2016 from Hong Kong-based Bitfinex, one of the world’s largest virtual currency exchanges. The value of the currency at the time of its seizure last week makes it the department’s largest financial seizure ever, officials said. A Justice Department official declined to comment on whether Mr. Lichtenstein and Ms. Morgan had been involved in the hacking itself. The breach in 2016 was among a spate of hackings into currency exchanges that have allowed for the theft of large amounts of digital currency. Even when the stolen funds were recovered, the thefts underscored the security vulnerabilities that exist in the relatively new world of cryptocurrency. In some cases, the incidents drastically affected cryptocurrency values. After the hacking of Bitfinex, one of the largest exchanges in the history of the cryptocurrency market, the value of Bitcoin initially plunged about 20 percent. The arrests on Tuesday “show that cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals,” Lisa O.
