The US Department of Justice stated on Tuesday that a New York couple was arrested and booked for a $4.5 billion cryptocurrency laundering scheme and attempting to deceive the US government.
Authorities say Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31, deceived the government and institutions about stolen bitcoin they had in their possession, which they hid using intricate money laundering procedures.
Prosecutors claim the couple will then cash out their bitcoin and use it to buy NFTs, gold, and gift cards. The cryptocurrency in question is allegedly linked to the theft of $4.5 billion during a 2016 hack of a crypto currency exchange, which resulted in thousands of fraudulent exchanges.
In connection with the hack, authorities managed to recover approximately $3.6 billion. The $4.5 billion figure is an estimate of the cryptocurrency's current value. What was stolen was worth slightly more than $70 million at the time of the hack.
The couple then supposedly ...