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The husband-wife duo accused in the infamous $3.6 billion Bitcoin (BTC) money laundering case had quite a contrasting valentine. A federal judge upheld a suspended release decision for his wife Heather Morgan while her husband Ilya Lichtenstein was placed in pre-trial detention.
Beryl a. howell, the Chief Justice of the Federal District Court in Colombia, ruled that lichtenstein has the motivation and resources to flee and should therefore be kept in custody. While Morgan successfully met the criteria for a suspended discharge from a $3 million bond.
The lawyer representing the couple denied any motivation for fleeing and argued that despite being under investigation from last year, the couple had no plans of leaving the country, citing their family ties and future plans, reported NYT.
Related: Meet the "comedic rapper" accused of hacking Bitfinex whitewash.
The main defendants in the case are suspected of laundering 94,000 btc out of 119,754 btc stolen from crypto stock market bitfinex in 2016, which has a present value of more than $5.1 billion. The preliminary inquiry found no link between the pair and the theft of funds in 2016. However, it was found that they were actively engaged in money laundering through a sophisticated network of accounts.
The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) confiscated 94,000 BTC associated with the hack in possession of Lichtenstein, making it the biggest crypto seizure in the agency’s history. The DoJ first traced back 25,000 BTC from the Bitifinex hack to the financial accounts controlled by the couple and later recovered a total of $3.6 billion worth of BTC in their possession.
The largest Bitcoin hack has already become a trending topic in the social circles and Netflix, the online streaming giant has already announced a new documentary series covering the theft and money laundering by the couple.
