The New York couple charged with attempting to launder $4.5 billion in bitcoin stolen in a 2016 hack of Bitfinex are expected to plead guilty in the case.
Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Rhiannon Morgan have been newly charged with an information, a charging document typically used by federal prosecutors when defendants agree to plead guilty. This information was revealed in a new Washington, D.C., federal court docket entry on Friday.
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An information is a charging document used by federal prosecutors when defendants agree to plead guilty. Lichtenstein and Morgan have been ordered to appear in court on August 3 for separate arraignments and plea hearings.
The specific charges in the information have not been disclosed yet. Typically, an information may have fewer charges or different ones compared to the original charges.
Booking photos for Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein.
Courtesy: Alexandria Adult Detention Center.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has ordered prosecutors and defense lawyers to submit plea paperwork by Thursday. The paperwork should include details of the charged offenses, statutory provisions, elements of the offense, a copy of the plea agreement, penalties, and federal sentencing guideline calculations.
The couple was initially charged in a criminal complaint when they were arrested in February 2022. They pleaded not guilty to charges of money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Morgan, also known as “Razzlekhan,” is currently out on a $3 million bond. Lichtenstein, nicknamed “Dutch,” has been held without bond since February 2022 due to concerns that he may flee the country.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, which is handling the case, declined to comment. The defense lawyers have not responded to CNBC’s requests for comment.
Prosecutors had previously mentioned that they were in plea negotiations with the couple after their arrests.
The couple’s case has seen multiple continuations since their arrests. The status hearing scheduled for Monday was canceled due to the filing of the new charging document.
Lichtenstein, age 34, and Morgan, age 32, are accused of attempting to launder the proceeds of 119,754 bitcoins stolen from Bitfinex in August 2016. The couple was not charged in relation to the hack of the cryptocurrency exchange based in Hong Kong.
At the time of their arrests, the Department of Justice reported that over 94,000 bitcoins, worth approximately $3.6 billion, had been seized in connection with the hack. This was the largest financial seizure in the history of the DOJ.
The stolen bitcoins were worth only $70 million at the time of the theft but their value skyrocketed in the following years.
“Over the last five years, approximately 25,000 of those stolen bitcoins were transferred out of Lichtenstein’s wallet via a complex money laundering process that ultimately led to some of the stolen funds being deposited into financial accounts controlled by Lichtenstein and Morgan,” stated the DOJ at the time of their arrests.
In early 2022, Netflix announced that it had commissioned a series on the couple.
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