Two alleged money launderers accused of processing nearly 120,000 Bitcoin stolen from Bitfinex in 2016 have reached a deal with prosecutors.
Nearly six years after the crypto exchange was hacked, Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein have entered into a plea agreement, court records showed on Friday. The married couple will now appear at a plea hearing on Aug. 3.
The Majority of $3.6 Billion Recovered From Bitfinex Hack
At the time of the initial hack, the USD value of the stolen assets stood at around $72 million. Today, they are worth nearly $3.6 billion.
As part of the investigation that led to the arrest of Morgan and Lichtenstein last year, authorities have seized the majority of the 119,756 BTC stolen from Bitfinex. On Friday, Chainalysis reported that 108,068 Bitcoin had been recovered in total.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) currently controls the stolen crypto. However, it is uncertain what the government will do with the funds upon the conclusion of the court proceedings.
In a statement commenting on the seizure of a significant portion of the stolen Bitcoin last year, Bitfinex said it would fight to secure its ownership of the assets. If it succeeds, the exchange will use 80% of the recovered funds to repurchase and burn LEO tokens.
Should this happen, it would likely drive the price of LEO up. When news broke that most of the stolen Bitcoin had been recovered, the price of LEO surged more than 50%.
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Author: James Morales
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