According to court documents, the couple accused of using a 2016 hack of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex have reached a plea agreement.
Bitfinex Hackers Couple Strike Plea Deal, They Could Face 20 years in Prison
According to court documents, the couple accused of using a 2016 hack of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex to launder $4.5 billion in cryptocurrencies and plan to defraud the US have reached a plea agreement.
The profits from the almost 120,000 Bitcoin that Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan are suspected of laundering have been agreed to be forfeited. On August 3, they are scheduled to appear before a court and might be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
According to U.S. officials, the offenders used "numerous sophisticated laundering techniques," including utilizing fictitious identities, automating transactions, and placing the money on many exchanges and darknet markets, a technique known as "layering."
The Department of Justice confiscated $3.6 billion worth of Bitcoin following an arrest in February 2022, which was the agency's "largest financial seizure ever." According to court records, the parties allegedly planned to launder 119,754 Bitcoins that were all taken from the Bitfinex platform during the 2016 hack. They were detained last year.
