A pair accused of cash laundering in connection to a 2016 hack of the crypto alternate Bitfinex have reached a plea deal, Reuters mentioned on July 21.
Senior Choose Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has reportedly ordered prosecutors to file a replica of the plea deal from the accused, Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein, by July 27. A plea listening to will then happen in a Washington court docket on Aug. 3.
Reuters based mostly its data on present court docket filings. Although it didn’t determine the doc in query, a abstract of a July 20 filing signifies that the Justice of the Peace case for each people has been closed pending deadlines, motions, and excludables.
Morgan and Lichtenstein had been arrested in February 2022 and had been accused of laundering roughly 100,000 BTC from a hack on Bitfinex six years earlier.
Case continues to develop
CryptoSlate previously reported that the couple allegedly laundered 119,756 Bitcoin (BTC). The stolen funds had been price near $3.6 billion on the time of the seizure, although they had been price $4.5 billion when the story emerged in February 2022. The above quantity is as soon as once more price $3.6 billion at present market costs.
Prosecutors charged the couple with conspiracy to commit cash laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the US. These fees carry potential most sentences of 20 years in jail and 5 years in jail, respectively.
Reuters mentioned in its present report that prosecutors now intention to power Morgan and Lichtenstein to forfeit belongings price about $3 billion, based mostly on the present spot costs of assorted cryptocurrencies. By the way, the demanded belongings embody not simply crypto, but in addition gold cash “excavated and recovered by regulation enforcement” in California.
Morgan and Lichtenstein maintained a public presence. Morgan had a web-based rap-hop profession beneath the alias “Razzlekhan.” Lichtenstein acted as a serial entrepreneur and in addition ran a YouTube channel as an novice magician.
The couple’s off-beat private life and alleged high-profile crimes have led Netflix to announce a collection based mostly on the 2 individauls. That collection has not but been launched.
The publish American couple accused of laundering stolen Bitfinex funds arrange plea deal appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Discussion about this post