It was an unusual Valentine week for the husband-and-wife team accused of laundering $3.6 billion in Bitcoin (BTC). Heather Morgan was given bail by a federal judge, but husband Ilya Lichtenstein was remanded to pre-trial imprisonment.
The chief judge of the Federal District Court in Columbia, Beryl A. Howell, determined that Lichtenstein had the motivation and resources to flee therefore he had to be detained. Morgan, on the other hand, had all the resources for a suspended release on a $3 million bail. The couple’s lawyer, according to the New York Times, refuted any motive for fleeing and insisted that, despite being under investigation since last year, they had no plans to leave the country, citing family ties and future plans.
The primary suspects in the case are accused of laundering 94,000 bitcoins (BTC) out of a total of 119,754 BTC stolen from the Bitfinex crypto exchange in 2016, which is now valued at over $5.1 billion. The original investigation found no connection between the two and the 2016 cash heist. They were found to be actively involved in money laundering through a complicated network of accounts, though.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) seized 94,000 bitcoins from Lichtenstein’s custody, making it the largest crypto seizure in the agency’s history. The Department of Justice initially connected 25,000 bitcoins from the Bitfinex hack to the couple’s accounts, and later recovered a total of $3.6 billion in bitcoins in their possession.
The world’s largest Bitcoin heist has already sparked a social media frenzy, with Netflix launching a new documentary series about the couple’s theft and money laundering.
So this couple is the new entrants to the Money heist.
