Police arrest ‘Crocodiles of Wall Street’ and seize $3.6 Billion in Bitcoin

• Police arrest Heather Morgan and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein
• $3.6 Billion Bitcoin believed to be stolen from Bitfinex seized
• Morgan and Lichtenstein, who do not appear to have been involved with the hack itself
• Both accused have been granted bail

Heather Morgan and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein are accused of attempting to launder 119,754 bitcoins obtained from the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange hack in 2016

In what can only be described as the most bizarre (and interesting) arrest since Tiger King, at 7am on Tuesday morning, Morgan and Lichtenstein’s high-rolling, Bonnie & Clyde lifestyle came crashing down around them. Morgan, 31, that in a 2019 music video titled “Versace Bedouin”, describes herself as a badass CEO and female rapper, was arrested alongside her husband, 34, on charges relating to conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. 

Although, Morgan and Lichtenstein, who do not appear to have been involved with the hack itself, Court documents state that more than 2,000 unauthorized transactions were made by the hacker and that the stolen Bitcoin eventually made its way into a digital wallet controlled by Lichtenstein. According to prosecutors the couple used a “complicated money laundering process” to transfer 25,000 of these stolen Bitcoins out of this wallet and into their accounts.  

The DOJ praised the seizure as the largest to date, stating that: “Today’s arrests, and the department’s largest financial seizure ever, show that cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “In a futile effort to maintain digital anonymity, the defendants laundered stolen funds through a labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions.” 

In a brief court appearance on Tuesday evening, both accused were granted bail, setting a bond of $3 million for Morgan and $5 million for Lichtenstein. They are both facing a 20 year prison term if found guilty. 

You might also be interested in: Compare Bitcoin Staking Rates