‘Bitcoin Bonnie & Clyde’ to plead responsible for alleged $4.5B cryptocurrency laundering scheme
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Crypto heist couple Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan — who have been charged with laundering $4.5 billion in hacked Bitcoin in 2016 — are reportedly getting ready to plead responsible forward of their subsequent scheduled courtroom look on Aug. 3.
The so-called “Bitcoin Bonnie & Clyde” have been newly charged within the case with a doc often called an info, which lays out legal fees and is just like an indictment, however which doesn’t require a grand jury’s vote, a Washington, D.C., federal courtroom doc filed Friday confirmed.
Federal prosecutors have been identified to make use of the particular paperwork when defendants conform to plead responsible.
Russian-born Lichtenstein, 34, and his spouse Morgan, 32, beforehand pleaded not responsible in a February 2022 case that charged them of cash laundering and conspiracy to defraud in the USA.
The pair have been arrested at their Manhattan house earlier that month for allegedly trying to launder an astounding $4.5 billion in cryptocurrency that had been stolen from Hong Kong’s Bitfinex, one of many world’s largest digital cryptocurrency exchanges, in 2016.
Federal authorities accused the couple of attempting to launder 119,754 bitcoin. On the time of the theft, the crypto amounted to about $70 million.
Nonetheless, on the time of their arrest, the value inflated into the billions. As we speak, 119,754 bitcoin is value almost $3.6 billion.
Lichtenstein — a Russian emigre often called “Dutch” — was not granted bail, and has been in a Washington, D.C., jail since his arrest after being billed a flight danger.
Morgan — higher often called the questionably gifted rapper “Razzlekhan” who shares songs about being “the crocodile of Wall Road” — is free on a $3 million bond pending the end result of negotiations.
The character of the fees acknowledged within the doc are confidential, although the courtroom docket confirmed that District of Columbia Choose Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered the couple’s protection to offer plea paperwork by Friday.
Choose Kollar-Kotelly mentioned the defendants’ paperwork should embrace “charged offense(s) and statutory provision; cost(s) in plea and statutory provision; components of the offense; copy of the plea settlement; penalties; and [federal sentencing] guideline calculations,” in keeping with the docket.
The Publish has reached out to Lichtenstein’s counsel at Cahill Gordon & Reindell, in addition to Morgan’s authorized crew at Burnham & Gorokhov.
If discovered responsible, Lichtenstein and Morgan might resist 25 years years behind bars. It’s unclear how a plea deal could affect their sentence.
Morgan has been spending her 24-hour home arrest holed up in the rented Wall Street high-rise she as soon as shared together with her husband.
The downtime had Morgan searching for distant work. In September, she tweeted saying: “In search of distant B2B progress /advertising and marketing /gross sales /copywriting /demand gen work. May be contract or doubtlessly full-time. Have 10 years expertise, together with remotely managing distributed groups.”
She additionally requested that solely “critical alternatives with B2B (tech) corporations” attain out.
The submit got here earlier than a decide granted Morgan’s request to amend the phrases of her house confinement.
In January, US Justice of the Peace Choose Zia M. Faruqui dominated that she might work from her employer’s New York workplace three days per week, from 10 a.m. to eight:30 p.m.
Faruqui additionally granted Morgan permission to make use of a pc and a smartphone — with monitoring software program put in on each — with a view to do business from home, although she remained barred from finishing up any cryptocurrency transactions.
Morgan’s tweet appeared to have labored, as her lawyer, Eugene Gorokhov, mentioned in a courtroom submitting that she was “within the function of progress advertising and marketing and enterprise improvement specialist.” Her employer’s identification was stored confidential for security causes.
Other than the tweet on Morgan’s job hunt, she’s been quiet on all social media fronts, even halting her YouTube movies the place she shared rap songs, paradoxically, about her being a hacking nerd.
On Instagram, the final submit shared to Razzlekhan’s account was on Feb. 7, 2022, the place Morgan recorded herself complaining that she looks like “a tortured canine going to the vet” when she goes to the nail salon.
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