A Russian in New York committed the theft of the century: he and his wife embezzled $ 4,5 billion worth of bitcoins

The couple were arrested on February 8 in Manhattan on charges of alleged conspiracy to launder $4,5 billion worth of cryptocurrencies. According to NBC New York, they stole the cryptocurrency in 2016 when the Bitfinex currency exchange was hacked.

Russian Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan, according to prosecutors, entered into a conspiracy to launder the proceeds of 119 bitcoins. The couple stole them from the Bitfinex platform. After the platform was hacked 754 years ago, they ended up in a digital wallet controlled by Liechtenstein.

About 25 bitcoins have been transferred from the wallet over the past five years and laundered through a complex process. As a result, part of the stolen funds ended up in bank accounts controlled by the couple.

On the subject: The man gave the fraudster more than $ 1 million to save him from evil spirits

The Department of Justice said it had already returned $3,6 billion worth of cryptocurrency stolen in the hack. According to Department officials, this is the largest financial confiscation in history.

The couple are accused of conspiracy to launder money. For this they face up to 20 years in prison.

What is known about scammers

According to the Daily Mail, Lichtenstein and Morgan live on Wall Street in lower Manhattan, New York's most prestigious area. Morgan collaborated with Forbes magazine and performs rap, in one of the songs she calls herself the “Crocodile of Wall Street”.

In one of her articles for Forbes in January 2020, she wrote about protecting businesses from cybercriminals. Little is known about Ilya Liechtenstein. The Daily Mail only describes him as "co-founder of an online marketing company."

The former top manager of Yandex, Grigory Bukanov, wrote in his Telegram channel that Liechtenstein, before the crypto exchange was hacked, was the founder of the unsuccessful company Mixrank, which he left in that same 2016.

“Then I didn’t work for two years, and then I acted as an investor. And as an investor, he caught the eye of the Endpass project - they made a very easy-to-use crypto wallet. Ilya became his adviser and has continued to be so far,” writes Bukanov.