Bitfinex hackers surrender: couple agree to forfeit 120,000 bitcoin in plea deal

A US couple accused of laundering billions of dollars worth of bitcoin stolen from the 2016 hack of virtual currency exchange Bitfinex has entered into a plea agreement, according to court records. informed of by Reuters.

Heather Morgan, who used the hip-hop alias “Razzlekhan” to broadcast her music online, and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein were arrested earlier this year and are set to appear in Washington on August 3 for a plea hearing before Senior Judge Colleen Koller-Kotley.

Laundered bitcoin exceeds $4.5 billion

Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, both New York residents, are charged with conspiracy to launder the proceeds of 119,754 bitcoin (BTC) stolen from Bitfinex in 2016.

The stolen bitcoins were transferred to a digital wallet controlled by Lichtenstein after the hacker breached the platform’s systems and initiated over 2,000 unauthorized transactions.

Over five years, approximately 25,000 of the stolen bitcoins were moved out of Lichtenstein’s wallet through a complex money-laundering process that eventually resulted in some of the stolen funds being deposited into financial accounts controlled by the couple.

The remainder of the stolen funds, over 94,000 bitcoins, were left in a wallet used to receive and store the illegal proceeds from the hack.

However, after executing court-authorized search warrants for online accounts controlled by Lichtenstein and Morgan, special agents gained access to files in an online account controlled by Lichtenstein.

These files contained the private keys needed to access digital wallets that directly received the stolen funds from Bitfinex, enabling law enforcement to legally seize and recover over 94,000 bitcoins, valued at more than $3.6 billion at the time of the seizure.

according to the culprit ComplaintLichtenstein and Morgan used a variety of sophisticated laundering techniques, including setting up online accounts using false identities, automating transactions using computer programs, depositing the stolen funds into accounts on virtual currency exchanges and darknet markets, converting bitcoin into other forms of virtual currency, and using US-based business accounts to legitimize their banking activity.

While bitcoin was worth $71 million at the time of the hack, it was worth more than $4.5 billion at the time of his arrest earlier this year. Prosecutors are now seeking to seize approximately $3 billion in assets from the pair, including cash from bank accounts and tokens from crypto wallets.

Additionally, prosecutors are seeking the couple to forfeit gold coins “unearthed and recovered by law enforcement” from an undisclosed location in California.

Currently, bitcoin remains the largest cryptocurrency in the market, based on trading volume and capitalization. It is currently trading at $29,860, which is relatively stable with a slight increase of 0.5% over the past 24 hours.

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