Man Charged in $4.5 Billion Crypto Scam Denied Bail by Judge

(Bloomberg) -- A judge in Washington D.C. denied bail to a man charged with trying to launder billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin stolen in a 2016 hack of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange, while allowing his wife to remain free before trial.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington Monday overturned a New York judge’s ruling granting bail to the man, Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, while upholding a decision that allowed his wife, Heather Morgan, 31, to remain free pending trial.

Lichtenstein and Morgan are accused of conspiring to launder 119,754 Bitcoin -- now valued at $3.6 billion -- stolen during a 2016 Bitfinex heist. The value of the all the stolen Bitcoin has risen to about $4.5 billion.

The couple’s bail was temporarily put on hold by a Washington judge after the U.S. filed an emergency request to review a New York judge’s decision allowing them to remain at home with electronic monitoring and bonds totaling $8 million.

Howell said the motivation for both to flee “has increased exponentially.” They have resources the government hasn’t been able to seize and skills that could help them escape, she said. 

But she added that “the evidence strongly suggests that Mr. Lichtenstein has more facility and skill” than Morgan and there is no indication that she had any access to the stolen cryptocurrency until it had been removed from the digital wallet that was allegedly controlled by her husband.

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