According to a DOJ announcement, the married couple was charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States. They stand accused of attempting to launder an unfathomable $4.5 billion in digital assets stolen years earlier. Should they be found guilty, those charges come with a maximum sentence of 20 years’ prison time and five years’ prison time, respectively, reads the announcement.
“Today’s arrests, and the department’s largest financial seizure ever, show that cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in a statement from the department. “In a futile effort to maintain digital anonymity, the defendants laundered stolen funds through a labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions. Thanks to the meticulous work of law enforcement, the department once again showed how it can and will follow the money, no matter what form it takes.”
In an interesting twist, Morgan gained some notoriety as, among other things, an internet rapper and contributor to Forbes. Per her bio from the business magazine, Morgan contributed articles between 2017 and 2021 and identifies as “an international economist, serial entrepreneur, and investor in B2B software companies.” Additionally, she lists her expertise in social engineering, game theory and persuasion. She also notes that she is the CEO of a company that uses AI to “automate identity verification while proactively detecting fraud.”
“When she’s not reverse-engineering black markets to think of better ways to combat fraud and cybercrime, she enjoys rapping and designing streetwear fashion,” it adds.
Court documents detailing the arrest allege Lichtenstein and Morgan conspired to lift almost 120,000 bitcoin from Bitfinex after a hacker breached the security system and initiated several thousand unauthorized transactions. Those transactions allegedly sent the stolen coins to a digital storage wallet in the control of Lichtenstein. The coins were then transferred via “a complicated money laundering process” ending with deposits into accounts controlled by the couple, according to information from the DOJ.
From Twitter
"The U.S. Govt. just announced it seized (without a court order) $3.6 billion in #Bitcoin from multiple private wallets spread across the world. A married couple allegedly stole the Bitcoin from Bitfinex in 2016. No one’s Bitcoin is safe if it’s that easy for governments to seize!"
Officials obtained search warrants of the accounts controlled by the couple, gained access to the wallet’s private keys and executed a seizure of the remaining stolen bitcoin.
“Today, federal law enforcement demonstrates once again that we can follow money through the blockchain, and that we will not allow cryptocurrency to be a safe haven for money laundering or a zone of lawlessness within our financial system,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The arrests today show that we will take a firm stand against those who allegedly try to use virtual currencies for criminal purposes.”
Per the DOJ announcement, the investigation was spearheaded by the IRS-CI Washington, D.C. Field Office’s Cyber Crimes Unit, Homeland Security Investigations-New York, and the FBI’s Chicago Field Office. Germany’s Ansbach Police Department also provided aid, it notes.
Prosecution will be handled by Jessica Peck and C. Alden Pelker of the DOJ Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section as well as Assistant Attorney Christopher Brown operating out of U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, reads the announcement.