US District Judge, Beryl Howell, denied ruling granting bail to Ilya Lichtenstein who is charged with trying to launder billions of dollars worth of bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin) stolen in from Bitfinex in 2016. This is not the case for his wife Heather Morgan though as she can await her trial at home if she made $3 million bail, Bloomberg has learned.
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Morgan (also known as Razzlekhan) and her husband (also known as "Dutch") were initially granted bail by another judge. However, the government alarmed that the couple could use un-seized bitcoin to flee the country. The judge noted that Lichtenstein has "more facility and skill" than Morgan since there is no indication that she had any access to the stolen assets.
On February 8, the FBI arrested the couple in Manhattan over charges related to laundering cryptocurrency stolen from Bitfinex in 2016. The US Department of Justice added that the law enforcement succeeded to seize over $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency.
Lichtenstein and Morgan allegedly conspired to launder the proceeds of 119,754 bitcoin that were stolen from Bitfinex after a hacker breached the exchange's systems and initiated more than 2,000 unauthorized transactions. Those unauthorized transactions sent the stolen cryptocurrency to a digital wallet under Lichtenstein’s control.
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