The post Heather Morgan Sentenced to 18 Months for Laundering Funds from the 2016 Bitfinex Hack appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein face the legal consequences of their involvement in the notorious Bitfinex hack, with sentences handed down for laundering stolen cryptocurrency. Morgan’s 18-month sentence and Lichtenstein’s five-year term mark significant developments in the justice system’s efforts to tackle cryptocurrency crimes. Financial historian John Paul Koning noted, “The DoJ has new legal theory for catching money launderers: charging them with ‘a conspiracy to defraud FinCEN’,” underlining the innovative approach in these high-profile cases. Heather Morgan sentenced to 18 months in prison and Ilya Lichtenstein to five years for laundering funds from the infamous 2016 Bitfinex hack. Both Perpetrators in the Bitfinex Hack are Now Behind Bars District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly delivered the sentence on Morgan’s trial earlier today, November 18. She was arrested back in 2022 with her husband in Manhattan. While facing multiple charges that could have resulted in a minimum of five years in prison, Morgan’s sentence was notably reduced due to her assistance to prosecutors during the investigation. “The DoJ has new legal theory for catching money launderers: charging them with ‘a conspiracy to defraud FinCEN.’ And it was first used in the case against crypto hackers Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan,” wrote financial historian John Paul Koning on X (formerly Twitter). Lihtenstein, who was instrumental in the theft of 119,754 Bitcoin, now valued at nearly $10 billion, orchestrated the hack while Morgan played a crucial role in laundering a portion of those stolen digital assets. Both defendants utilized an array of tactics to obscure the trail of the stolen funds, including the creation of fake identities, executing small incremental transfers across multiple cryptocurrency exchanges, and making purchases including NFTs, gold, and gift cards using the laundered Bitcoin. According to reports from Bloomberg, Morgan managed to launder **21%** of the stolen Bitcoin, also…

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Filed under: News - @ November 19, 2024 12:25 am