Two accused of laundering $4.5 billion worth of cryptocurrency

Two people were arrested in New York City Tuesday for allegedly laundering cryptocurrency. 

The money was stolen in a 2016 hack of Bitfinex — a virtual currency exchange — and is currently worth $4.5 billion. 

Law enforcement has seized over $3.6 billion of that total. 

Suspects Ilya Lichtenstein and wife Heather Morgan will make their initial appearance in federal court Tuesday. 

“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 O. Monaco said in a statement. 

“In a futile effort to maintain digital anonymity, the defendants laundered stolen funds through a labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions. Thanks to the meticulous work of law enforcement, the department once again showed how it can and will follow the money, no matter what form it takes,” she said.

Kenneth A. Polite Jr., assistant attorney general with the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, added that the department “will not allow cryptocurrency to be a safe haven for money laundering or a zone of lawlessness within our financial system.”