US law enforcers seize $3.6 billion in stolen cryptocurrency from New York couple

Law enforcement officials have arrested and charged a New York couple has with conspiring to launder $4.5 billion in stolen cryptocurrency funds and have seized $3.6 billion of those funds.

US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco called the fund seizure "the department's largest" ever.

The arrests and money seizure of Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31, are for trying to launder money taken in a huge hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016.

Hackers have been making hundreds of millions of dollars in attacks on virtual currency exchanges.

The couple is charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries up to 20 years in prison, and conspiracy to defraud the US, which carries up to five years in prison,

The department did not announce charges for the actual hack of Bitfinex, and Justice Department officials declined to comment further, citing an ongoing investigation.

Law enforcement agencies have looked to more aggressively track and seize the cryptocurrency often used by criminal hackers.

Last year, US officials recovered $2.3 million of the $4.4 million in ransom that Colonial Pipeline paid to a Russian-speaking gang.

Tom Robinson, the co-founder of cryptocurrency analysis firm Elliptic, noted that even when sophisticated money laundering techniques are used, the indelible blockchain records still allow law enforcement to link criminal activity to individuals.