A pair charged with cash laundering in reference to a 2016 hack of crypto trade Bitfinex have reached a plea deal, Reuters mentioned on July 21.
Senior Choose Colleen Kollar-Kotelly reportedly ordered prosecutors to file a duplicate of the plea settlement for defendants Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein by July 27. A plea listening to will then happen in a Washington court docket on August 3.
Reuters primarily based its data on ongoing court docket instances. Though he didn’t determine the doc in query, a abstract of a July 20 submitting signifies that the Justice of the Peace’s case for the 2 people has been closed pending deadlines, motions and disqualifications.
Morgan and Lichtenstein have been arrested in February 2022 and charged with laundering round 100,000 BTC from a Bitfinex hack six years earlier.
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forexcryptozone beforehand reported that the couple allegedly laundered 119,756 Bitcoins (BTC). The stolen funds have been value practically $3.6 billion on the time of seizure, up from $4.5 billion when the story first surfaced in February 2022. The above quantity is once more value $3.6 billion at present market costs.
Prosecutors charged the couple with conspiracy to commit a cash laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the US. These fees carry potential most sentences of 20 years in jail and 5 years in jail, respectively.
Reuters mentioned in its present report that prosecutors are actually aiming to pressure Morgan and Lichtenstein to confiscate belongings value roughly $3 billion, primarily based on present spot costs of varied cryptocurrencies. By the way, the requested belongings embody not solely crypto, but in addition gold cash “excavated and recovered by legislation enforcement” in California.
Morgan and Lichtenstein maintained a public presence. Morgan has had a web-based rapping profession below the pseudonym “Razzlekhan”. Lichtenstein acted as a serial entrepreneur and in addition ran a YouTube channel as an beginner magician.
The couple’s quirky private life and high-profile alleged crimes led Netflix to announce a collection primarily based on the 2 people. This collection has not but been launched.
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