In Separate Hearings, Crypto 'Bonnie and Clyde' Plead Guilty

Ilya Lichtenstein, wife admit role in 2016 Bitfinex exchange hack
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 4, 2023 10:53 AM CDT
Crypto's 'Bonnie and Clyde' Plead Guilty
In this courtroom sketch, attorney Sam Enzer, center, sits between Heather Morgan, left, and her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, in federal court, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022, in New York.   (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams)

Hours before former President Trump's arraignment in Washington, DC, on Thursday, a couple dubbed cryptocurrency's "Bonnie and Clyde" appeared in back-to-back hearings in the same federal courthouse. New York tech entrepreneur Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan both pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering conspiracy under an agreement with prosecutors, CNN reports. The money they conspired to launder came from the 2016 theft of $71 million in bitcoin from the Bitfinex exchange. The value of the stolen cryptocurrency had ballooned to more than $4.5 billion when they were arrested early last year. The $3.6 billion recovered by the Justice Department was the largest seizure of funds in its history.

Lichtenstein, who was born in Russia and grew up in the US, unexpectedly admitted that he was behind the Bitfinex hack, though under the plea deal, he is unlikely to face additional charges, the Wall Street Journal reports. Prosecutors said he used sophisticated tools to steal more than half the Hong Kong-based exchange's inventory and cover his tracks. Morgan said Thursday that her husband didn't tell her about his role in the hack until 2020, but after that, she "did help him launder funds at his direction to conceal his involvement in the hack." Morgan, who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the US, faces up to five years in prison on each of the two charges. Lichtenstein faces a maximum sentence of 20 years.

Morgan played a lesser role in the crimes but she was the more high-profile of the pair, the Washington Post reports. She rapped under the name "Razzlekhan," calling herself the "Crocodile of Wall Street" in one song. She also wrote for business publications including Forbes, where her column addressed issues including fighting cybercrime. According to court documents, the couple only attempted to launder a fraction of the stolen funds, some of which was used to buy gold coins, which they buried in California. Lichtenstein has been in jail since his arrest last year and Morgan has been under house arrest. The Journal reports that the couple haven't seen each other in more than a year and a request from Lichtenstein's lawyers for a brief meeting between their separate hearings was denied. (More cryptocurrency stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X