US Seizes Stolen Bitcoin Worth $3.6 Billion In Record Haul, Couple Arrested
NDTV
A couple accused of seeking to launder the stolen bitcoin "through a labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions" were arrested Tuesday in New York
The US Justice Department announced Tuesday it had recovered more than 94,000 bitcoin stolen in 2016, currently valued at $3.6 billion, a record seizure.
A couple accused of seeking to launder the bitcoin were arrested in New York, the department said. Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife Heather Morgan, 31, were set to appear in federal court over the charges.
Lichtenstein and Morgan allegedly sought to launder the proceeds of 119,754 bitcoin -- then valued at $65 million -- that were stolen during a 2016 hack of the virtual currency exchange Bitfinex.
"Today's arrests, and the Department's largest financial seizure ever, show that cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals," deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco said in the statement.
