Two Arrested For Alleged Conspiracy To Launder $4 5 Billion In Stolen Cryptocurrency

Two individuals were arrested this morning in Manhattan for an alleged conspiracy to launder cryptocurrency that was stolen during the 2016 hack of Bitfinex, a virtual currency exchange, presently valued at approximately $4.5 billion. Thus far, law enforcement has seized over $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency linked to that hack. Lichtenstein and Morgan are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and conspiracy to defraud the United States, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Phemex is a professional and trustworthy global cryptocurrency and derivatives trading platform.

• There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.
• A complaint is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
• Attorneys’ Offices for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Southern District of New York, HSI-Philadelphia, and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica C. Brooks.
• The Ansbach Police Department in Germany provided assistance during this investigation.
• Crypto Listing Application Make your crypto project available to 3+ million people on Bitpanda.
• Phemex is a professional and trustworthy global cryptocurrency and derivatives trading platform.

According to court documents, Lichtenstein and Morgan allegedly conspired to launder the proceeds of 119,754 bitcoin that were stolen from Bitfinex’s platform after a hacker breached Bitfinex’s systems and initiated more than 2,000 unauthorized transactions. Those unauthorized transactions sent the stolen bitcoin to a digital wallet under Lichtenstein’s control. Over the last five years, approximately Cryptocurrencies VS Tokens difference 25,000 of those stolen bitcoin were transferred out of Lichtenstein’s wallet via a complicated money laundering process that ended with some of the stolen funds being deposited into financial accounts controlled by Lichtenstein and Morgan. The remainder of the stolen funds, comprising more than 94,000 bitcoin, remained in the wallet used to receive and store the illegal proceeds from the hack.

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After the execution of court-authorized search warrants of online accounts controlled by Lichtenstein and Morgan, special agents obtained access to files within an online account controlled by Lichtenstein. Those files contained the private keys required to access the https://xcritical.com/ digital wallet that directly received the funds stolen from Bitfinex, and allowed special agents to lawfully seize and recover more than 94,000 bitcoin that had been stolen from Bitfinex. The recovered bitcoin was valued at over $3.6 billion at the time of seizure.

The Ansbach Police Department in Germany provided assistance during this investigation. Crypto Listing Application Make your crypto project available to 3+ million people on Bitpanda. A complaint is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Government Seized $3 6 Billion In Stolen Cryptocurrency Directly Linked To 2016 Hack Of Virtual Currency Exchange

Alden Pelker of the Justice Department’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher B. Brown of the U.S. Paralegal Specialists Angela De Falco and Brian Rickers and Legal Assistant Jessica McCormick provided valuable assistance. Significant assistance was also provided by Trial Attorney Christen Gallagher of the Office of International Affairs, the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Southern District of New York, HSI-Philadelphia, and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica C. Brooks. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. The investigation was led by IRS-CI Washington, D.C. Field Office’s Cyber Crimes Unit, the FBI’s Chicago Field Office, and HSI-New York.