Ilya Lichtenstein

Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31, are accused of trying to launder money taken in a huge hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016. In February 2022, they were arrested and charged with conspiring to launder $4.5 billion in stolen cryptocurrency funds. Law enforcement officials have seized $3.6 billion of those funds. The Justice Department did not announce charges for the actual hack of Bitfinex, and Justice Department officials declined to comment further, citing an ongoing investigation. Mr. Lichtenstein, his attorney said Anirudh Bansal said, came to the United States from Russia when he was 6. His father works for the housing authority of Cook County, Ill., and his mother is a biochemist at Northwestern University.