The government disclosed the alleged network of accounts used for money laundering. One cloud account contained addresses and keys holding more than 94,000 bitcoins.
The US Justice sent back a response to the request for a review about the arrest of Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, both accused of executing money-laundering activities connected to the multi-million dollar attack on the exchange Bitfinex, suffered in 2016.
Both accused got denied parole, and details in the case showed how both criminals acted to carry out these activities.
In a statement revealed by prosecutor Matthew Graves, which works with the District of Columbia Court of Justice, the authorities clarified why they keep both accused under their current legal condition. In addition, they brought a series of details about the arrest that took effect on Tuesday.
The authorities believe that the conditions are not enough to ensure that the couple would appear when the time of being tried comes. One reason to believe this is that the accused, which counts on a vast amount of money and false identities, would find a breach so they could flee or would even get encouraged to flee.
The authorities also believe they had plan-B to hide in countries like Russia or Ukraine before the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak. For these series of reasons, their request for parole got completely denied, and they now remain in custody without any possibility of bail. Meanwhile, details of an investigation led by the American Justice since January 2022 got revealed.
The Activities the Accused Carried Out to Launder More than USD 1,000 Million in Bitcoin
Lichtenstein and Morgan, both accused of carrying out money-laundering activities, got arrested after one of the wallets they probably used to carry out this complex money laundering process got confiscated.
These keys, kept in an encrypted file in a cloud service with addresses of more than 2,000 accounts, opened the doors for the US government to seize at least 94,000 BTC.
The seized amount would equal USD 4,129 million, according to the price the cryptocurrency presented when this information came to the public eye. According to the government, the funds seized from Lichtenstein have a strong connection with the accounts in which the funds stolen from Bitfinex got collected.
It is also important to consider that Morgan would have played a vital role in the money laundering network, even if the defense of the accused intends to defend the accused by claiming that it is not true.
This money laundering scheme also had an account active in the Alphabay black market marketplace that ended its activities back in 2017, along with other bitcoin wallets, and various accounts on other platforms that, although not in the name of the accused couple, were closely linked to them.
The authorities explained in the letter that his situation probably got verified from the data found in Lichtenstein’s cloud account.
By: Jenson Nuñez
