{"id":57444,"date":"2022-02-09T16:10:47","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T14:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=57444"},"modified":"2025-09-04T11:46:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T08:46:19","slug":"suspects-tied-to-bitfinex-stolen-assets-remain-jailed-on-8-million-bail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/suspects-tied-to-bitfinex-stolen-assets-remain-jailed-on-8-million-bail\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspects tied to Bitfinex stolen assets remain jailed on $8 million bail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Accused of conspiring to launder 119,754 BTC stolen from Bitfinex, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan could post an $8 million bail only upon a ruling by a court in Washington. The order issued by a magistrate judge in the Southern District of New York, which had granted them that right, has expired.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BOOM! Chief Judge Howell of DDC Before 10 PM Stays Release In $3.6 Billion Crypto Laundering Case for Liechtenstein and Morgan, Ordered at 7 pm Mag Judge Freeman <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sdnylive?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SDNYLIVE<\/a> Inner City Press story: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EUPDCwN7Cl\">https:\/\/t.co\/EUPDCwN7Cl<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Y3NnCMaY23\">pic.twitter.com\/Y3NnCMaY23<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Inner City Press (@innercitypress) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/innercitypress\/status\/1491241642145509379?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 9, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>According to Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press, <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/u-s-authorities-confiscated-3-6-billion-in-bitcoin-stolen-from-bitfinex\">detainees<\/a> can be brought to Washington, where their case is being heard.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It means Magistrate Judge Freeman\u2019s 7 pm order setting conditions for release is no longer in effect; Liechtenstein and Morgan will only get out if the Court in DC, which has the case, orders it. That Court may simply order their transfer south by the Marshals. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1TLnO4eNm7\">https:\/\/t.co\/1TLnO4eNm7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Inner City Press (@innercitypress) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/innercitypress\/status\/1491243924962242562?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 9, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Earlier, the magistrate judge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national-security\/2022\/02\/08\/bitfinex-hack-bitcoin-arrests\/\">ordered the release<\/a> of Lichtenstein and Morgan on bail of $5 million and $3 million respectively, and also required them to remain at their home in New York and wear electronic bracelets.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>During the hearing, the prosecutor stated that the pair have access to $330 million, which they could use to flee.<\/p>\n<p>In a comment to journalist Colin Wu, Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino answered the community\u2019s most pressing questions, the main one being: are the detainees hackers?<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Paolo, Bitfinex CTO, answered our three questions:<br \/>1\u3001We don\u2019t have that information yet. The general belief is they are the money launderers, but not necessarily the hackers. It will be part of the process to confirm all the facts and potentially discover other participants. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7APmBIZ4pR\">https:\/\/t.co\/7APmBIZ4pR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WuBlockchain\/status\/1491357388741701633?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 9, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Ardoin noted that he does not yet have such information. By general consensus, they were simply laundering funds, not necessarily hackers, and law enforcement still has to identify other participants.<\/p>\n<p>He also said that the process of returning the stolen bitcoins by the exchange would take time, and he did not specify exact timelines. Bitfinex continues to cooperate with the Department of Justice, he added.<\/p>\n<p>Ardoin expressed confidence that Bitfinex\u2019s holders of the native LEO token would take an interest in exchanging it for BTC.<\/p>\n<p>In the wake of the events, the asset rose about 50%. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coingecko.com\/en\/coins\/leo-token\">CoinGecko<\/a>, at the time of writing the pace had slowed to 45%.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, Bitfinex representatives stated that if the stolen bitcoins are returned, 80% of the proceeds would go toward a buyback and burning of UNUS SED LEO tokens, as outlined in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitfinex.com\/wp-2019-05.pdf\">white paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>On February 1, <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/over-90000-btc-moved-from-bitfinex-hack\">94,643 BTC moved<\/a>, stolen in 2016 from Bitfinex. Whale Alert recorded more than 20 transactions.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to the ForkLog channel on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCC9FnXTC8_ENzaNSO5cHQ6g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> YouTube<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Accused of conspiring to launder 119,754 BTC stolen from Bitfinex, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan could post an $8 million bail only upon a ruling by a Washington court. The order issued by a magistrate judge in the Southern District of New York that had granted them that right has expired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[95,1162,44],"class_list":["post-57444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-bitfinex","tag-court-cases","tag-cybercrime"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"19","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57446,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57444\/revisions\/57446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}