INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Heather Morgan (R) and Ilya Lichtenstein were detained on charges of conspiring to launder Bitcoins.They are, to hear the feds tell it, a
media moment, via flashing billboards in Times Square.At 7 a.m
on Tuesday, their blingy world of TED talk-style salons and music videos collapsed around them when they were arrested by federal law
enforcement officials in New York City and accused of a crime that would've seemed preposterous in a halcyon, pre-cryptocurrency era:
enriching themselves off a cache of stolen Bitcoin that is today worth about $4.5 billion.Heather Morgan, 31, and her husband Ilya
Lichtenstein, 34, were detained on charges of conspiring to launder 119,754 Bitcoin
The digital currency, the authorities say, came from the 2016 hack of Bitfinex, a cryptocurrency exchange owned and operated by iFinex
Inc.At an initial appearance in a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday evening, Morgan wore a white hooded sweatshirt, her long hair down
Neither wore shackles nor spoke publicly
The trial will eventually be held in Washington.The judge granted both bail, setting a bond of $3 million for Morgan and asking her parents
to post their home as security
For Lichtenstein, the amount was $5 million
The government initially asked the judge not to allow them to be released on bail
Each is facing the possibility of a 20-year prison sentence, so they have the motivation to run, a prosecutor told the judge.None of this
could have happened 20 years ago
The couple's audacious plan, as laid out by federal authorities, as well as the brazen lifestyle that plan supposedly afforded, seemed
tailored to these times, and these times alone.The Department of Justice says that the Bitcoin stolen during the 2016 hack was sent to a
digital wallet controlled by Lichtenstein and then to one the couple controlled via a complex laundering scheme
The cryptocurrency was worth $71 million when it was spirited away in 2016
Now the stash is worth $4.5 billion as Bitcoin prices have skyrocketed, of which $3.6 billion worth of tokens has been recovered by federal
Even Lichtenstein's 2019 proposal appeared to be aimed at boosting his future wife's career as Razzlekhan, an artist specializing in
collage, sculpture, painting and fashion design
on Tuesday recalled meeting Morgan in July 2019
Morgan told them she had just flown in first class from Japan and, over lunch at a French-style bistro downtown, pitched herself as a
cold emails over the previous decade and had helped 720 companies improve email campaigns
The talk focused mostly on how to crash events, suggesting that would-be crashers bring cash for tips, wear a black T-shirt to appear as if
they were security, and also bring layered outfits in case they need to change their look quickly.Her presentation ended with another slide:
headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
