Kenneth A.Polite-Junior: Latest News

NEW YORK - A New York couple was arrested Tuesday on charges of conspiring to launder $4.5 billion in cryptocurrency that was stolen in a 2016 hack of a virtual currency exchange, the Justice Department said.Besides the arrests, federal law enforcement officials also revealed that the Justice Department has seized roughly $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency linked to the hack of Bitfinex, a virtual currency exchange whose systems were breached nearly six years ago.The stolen cryptocurrency, valued at $71 million at the time of the theft, is now valued at $4.5 billion, officials said.Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31, were arrested in Manhattan on Tuesday morning and face federal charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States. It was unclear if they had lawyers or people who could speak on their behalf."Today, federal law enforcement demonstrates once again that we can follow money through the blockchain, and that we will not allow cryptocurrency to be a safe haven for money laundering or a zone of lawlessness within our financial system," said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A.