Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., waited for the first order by a New York Magistrate Judge to release Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan on bail. They were doubted of laundering revenue from the 2016 Bitfinex hack. It is reported that the officials seized 94,000 BTC, worth over $3.5 billion at today’s prices.
Prosecutors wanted pre-trial detention during the hearing, asserting the pair might be a flight risk. Lichtenstein was ordered for home detention with a wearable GPS and a $5 million bond whereas, Morgan got exact with a $3 million bond. The government initially asked for a $100 million bond, which was shortly dismissed. The defence asked for $1 million, which was also opposed.
Defence lawyers told the court that Morgan has health problems and detention would be dangerous for her.
According to the sources both are being charged with money laundering corruption and conspiracy to cheat the United States Of America. They are not being booked with administering the hack itself. The 1st charge can be penalized by up to 20 years in jail and the 2nd by 5 years.
According to the facts, U.S. authorities tracked the looted funds on the BTC blockchain moved out of the first recipient wallet to wallets allegedly regulated by
Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan. Lichtenstein’s cloud storage account comprised 2,000 crypto wallet addresses and their private keys. Blockchain inspection substantiated that nearly all of those wallets were directly associated with the hack.
Darknet market AlphaBay was reported as a protocol allegedly used by the defendants.
