The defense of the Russian Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan, who were arrested on charges of laundering stolen bitcoins in the amount of $ 4.5 billion, are asking the court of the metropolitan American District of Columbia to release them on bail. This is reported TASS with reference to the documents received in the electronic database of the court.
Earlier, the District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered the release of American Morgan on bail of three million dollars and Liechtenstein on bail of $5 million. However, a court in Washington later overturned the decision of the New York court.
Lawyers noted that Morgan and Lichtenstein “have no reason to flee.” “The detention of Ms. Morgan and Mr. Liechtenstein would unfairly limit their ability to defend themselves in this case, and also pose potentially serious risks to Ms. Morgan’s health,” the defense said in a statement.
Earlier it was reported that Lichtenstein and Morgan were allowed to leave prison on bail.
The couple is accused of trying to launder bitcoins that were stolen during a cyberattack on the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange in 2016. Only bitcoin wallets of users were hacked, from which hackers stole 119,756 bitcoins.
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