A couple charged with conspiracy to launder billions of dollars in cryptocurrency stolen from one of the world’s largest virtual currency exchanges has reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors, according to court documents.
The couple, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, will appear on Aug. 3 for a plea hearing and arraignment before Federal District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington, D.C., according to a note added to the court in the case on Friday.
The docket entry contained no details of the plea agreement, only that a copy of it was to be provided to Judge Kollar-Kotelly along with other paperwork by July 27.
Lawyers for Mr. Lichtenstein and Ms. Morgan did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did the Justice Department.
Mr. Lichtenstein, 35, and Ms. Morgan, 33, were charged in February 2022 with conspiracy to launder Bitcoin worth $71 million when it was stolen from Hong Kong-based exchange Bitfinex in 2016 in a heist that shook the cryptocurrency world.
Bitcoin soared in value in the years between the Bitfinex heist and the couple’s arrest. When announcing the charges against Mr. Lichtenstein and Ms. Morgan, authorities said they had seized more than $3 billion in Bitcoin from them.
Mr. Lichtenstein, nicknamed Dutch, holds both US and Russian citizenship and described himself as a tech entrepreneur, according to court documents. Ms. Morgan described herself on social media sites as “a serial entrepreneur” and also as an “irreverent comedic rapper” who went by the name of Razzlekhan.