Bitfinex hacker and his wife plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering involving billions of dollars in BTC

ChainCatcher News, the U.S. Department of Justice Public Affairs Office announced that married couple Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan from New York City have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, in a case involving the theft of approximately 120,000 BTC from Bitfinex. Lichtenstein pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while Morgan pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud against the United States, which carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison.

The couple was arrested in February 2022, after the government seized approximately 95,000 stolen bitcoins from cryptocurrency wallets controlled by the defendants. At the time of the seizure, the recovered funds were valued at around $3.6 billion. Since their arrest, the government has seized an additional approximately $475 million related to this hacking incident. According to court documents, Lichtenstein used various advanced hacking tools and techniques to access Bitfinex's network. Once inside their system, Lichtenstein fraudulently authorized over 2,000 transactions, transferring 119,754 BTC from Bitfinex to cryptocurrency wallets controlled by Lichtenstein. Subsequently, Lichtenstein took steps to cover his tracks, returning to Bitfinex's network to delete access credentials and other log files that could expose him to law enforcement. After the hack, Lichtenstein, with the help of his wife Morgan, laundered the stolen funds. Lichtenstein also employed various money laundering techniques with Morgan's assistance.