The high-profile case of a New York couple who laundered bitcoins obtained in the attack on the Bitfinex exchange is coming to an end. The couple has reached a settlement with the court.
The End of the Bitfinex Case
In the summer of 2016, criminals successfully attacked the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. They seized 119,754 BTC, then worth $72 million, today – $3.57 billion.
It wasn’t until early 2022 that the authorities arrested Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan and her husband Ilja “Dutch” Lichtenstein in this case. The latter remains in custody to this day, while Morgan was released on bail. Interestingly, she found a job in the IT industry. It was difficult to leave the woman locked up, because the evidence proving her guilt was weak – she only received funds from the crime.
The couple has now decided to reach a settlement with the court. It is known that the hearing that will decide her fate will take place on August 3. We do not know what sentence she agreed to. Morgan and Lichtenstein have been charged with money laundering, for which they theoretically face 25 years in prison. With the settlement, the sentence will probably be lighter.
Who is behind the attack?
As any attentive reader has probably noticed, the pair have been accused of laundering funds obtained from crime. It is not known who exactly was behind the hacking attack on Bitfinex. It is possible that Morgan and Liechtenstein were also involved, but the services have a problem proving it to them.
One clue is that the couple flew to Ukraine in 2019. The prosecutor’s office suspects that at that time they were both creating and updating various files on their online accounts that could be related to money laundering. Of course, the most interested parties defend themselves by saying that they were just on vacation.
On the other hand, in January 2022, the services analyzed the contents of Liechtenstein’s cloud accounts. In this way, officers found a list of cryptocurrency wallet addresses associated with the Bitfinex hack, along with the keys to them. The couple managed to launder “only” 25,000 bitcoins.
The couple’s actions may soon be widely publicized, as Netflix began preparations last year to create a documentary series that will tell the story of the Bitfinex attack. The premiere will probably take place soon.
