A crucial clue in the 4.5 billion bitcoin heist: A 500 Walmart gift card – Aliens: AI Crypto News & Markets Updates
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Increasingly sophisticated tools and a few gift cards helped investigators indict a young couple for conspiring to launder billions a crucial clue in the $4.5 billion bitcoin heist: a walmart gift card of 500 dollars of james fanelli | updated Feb 15, 2022 3:29 PM m. increasingly sophisticated tools and some gift cards helped investigators charge a young couple with conspiring to launder billions of dollars they stole bitcoin now worth $4.5 billion.
Reading: Clue bitcoin walmart gift card
mr. lichtenstein, 34, and mrs. Morgan, 31, was charged with conspiring to launder money and defraud the federal government.
Federal prosecutors have not alleged that Mr. lichtenstein and mrs. Morgan did the hacking.
In a memorandum filed with the court, his lawyers said: “The money laundering allegations in the government’s lawsuit are based on a series of circumstantial assumptions and inferences drawn from a complex web of intricate blockchain tracing assertions and cryptocurrencies”. on monday, a judge ordered that mr. lichtenstein remained in jail, but allowed mrs. Morgan was placed on house arrest on $3 million bail while awaiting trial.
mr. Lichtenstein was an introvert who preferred programming and making computer circuit boards to socializing, friends of the couple said.
In January 2017, small amounts began to move in a series of complex transactions, according to a criminal complaint filed against Mr. lichtenstein and mrs. morgan.
“There are places where you can still charge anonymously and without controls, but there are very few now,” said Tom Robinson, co-founder of cryptanalysis firm Elliptic Enterprises Ltd. Stolen bitfinex bitcoins that had been dumped by the pair through alphabay accounts were deposited into newly created accounts at various exchanges registered to foreign email addresses created at the time of the hack.
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Authorities said in the documents that the cryptocurrency linked to the hack was transferred to the accounts of Mr. lichtenstein and mrs. Morgan had created linked to his real identities and businesses.
at the bond hearings, mrs. Morgan’s attorney said her client’s accounts were set up to handle legitimate income for her business and there is no evidence that she knew of any connection between the incoming funds and the illegal activity.
in 2016 mr. lichtenstein and mrs. morgan lived in the san francisco bay area, according to friends.
in june 2019, mr. lichtenstein asked mrs. morgan to marry him.
during that time, mr. lichtenstein, which has double u.s. and Russian citizenship, updated files in a cloud storage account that had money laundering information, and false identity documents with Ukrainian connections, prosecutors said.
The couple’s lawyers said they had no intention of leaving the country and emphasized that mrs. morgan’s frozen eggs needed for in vitro fertilization are in new york.
The transaction, however, was made through an IP address linked to a cloud service provider in New York that investigators linked to Mr. lichtenstein, according to the agents.
portions of the gift card, according to the documents presented, were redeemed through the walmart phone app.
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Three purchases were made online using ms. Morgan’s name was provided, using one of her emails, and the couple’s apartment address for delivery.
Between February 2019 and December 2020, bitcoin with a current value of approximately $7.8 million flowed through the pool to and from accounts at various crypto exchanges that investigators say, in court documents, are linked to the Mr. lichtenstein and mrs. morgan.
The investigating agents in January 2021 asked us that the magistrate judge zia faruqui in washington will issue an order to search for email accounts connected to the couple.
100 percent electronic,” referencing a line from the movie “The Big Lebowski.” Messrs. Lichtenstein and Ms. Morgan learned of the investigation in November, when an Internet service provider told them that Authorities had sought records related to the couple on a subpoena a year earlier, their attorneys said in court documents.
In the apartment, investigators seized a plastic bag marked “disposable phone,” more than $40,000 in cash and more than 50 electronic devices, prosecutors said in court documents.
According to prosecutors’ files, the couple opted to leave while officers searched.
like mrs. Morgan tried to lure the cat out of hiding from him, grabbing a phone from a nightstand, the documents say.
by then, investigators had access to mr. Lichtenstein’s email and cloud account, according to court documents.
there was a folder called “people” that had identification documents and another called “passport_ideas”. The researchers also said they found a file that listed all the addresses within the digital wallet where most of the bitcoins that had been stolen from Bitfinex were kept.
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