It is the largest government seizure of bitcoin fraud in history,
The money was found in accounts controlled by the husband and wife, who have been charged with money laundering and fraud.
The US Department of Justice stated Tuesday that it had recovered $3.6 billion in bitcoin BTCUSD –
0.21 percent were stolen in a 2016 hack of the currency exchange Bitfinex.
Prosecutors said they had managed to trace the stolen money — nearly 120,000 bitcoins —
through an intricate web of transactions done to hide its origins to a number of crypto wallets.
Not all of the bitcoin stolen in the 2016 hack has been recovered, and the investigation is ongoing, prosecutors said.
When the hack occurred, the bitcoin was worth approximately $71 million. Today, it would be worth $4.5 billion, they said.
According to investigators, when the 2016 hack occurred, the money was moved out from Bitfinex in 2,000
separate transactions to wallets on other platforms, bitcoin fraud.
Initially, much of the money was placed in accounts on the dark-web platform Alpha Bay,
but then moved again into dozens of accounts all over the world.
At a federal court hearing in New York late Tuesday, prosecutors initially sought to keep the couple behind bars while awaiting trial.
But a judge ultimately ruled they could be released if they met certain conditions, including bonds of $5 million for Lichtenstein and $3 million for Morgan.
Both were also ordered to remain at their home in New York with ankle bracelet monitors.
During court arguments about the terms of their release, prosecutors said the couple had access to
$330 million worth of bitcoin that hasn’t been recovered and that federal agents found what they called
a bag of “burner” phones under the couple’s bed, suggesting they could be a flight risk.
