The BroadsheetDAILY – 2/9/22 – FiDi Couple Arrested on Charges of Laundering Billions

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FiDi Couple Arrested on Charges of Laundering Billions

Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, residents of 75 Wall Street, have been arrested and charged with conspiring to launder billions of dollars in stolen virtual currency.

A married couple living in the Financial District were arrested by FBI agents on Tuesday morning, and charged with conspiracy to launder billions of dollars worth of stolen cryptocurrency. Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, were arrested in their home, at 75 Wall Street, according to federal prosecutors.

Mr. Lichtenstein and Ms. Morgan are alleged to have been in possession, through various online accounts, of 94,000 bitcoin, the virtual currency, which had been stolen by hackers from a digital exchange, Bitfinex, in 2016. The current value of that quantity of bitcoin is more than $3.6 billion.

While the couple are not currently charged with having participated in the 2016 robbery, federal agents tracing the proceeds from the Bitfinex theft followed a digital trail that led to accounts controlled by Mr. Lichtenstein and Ms. Morgan.

Armed with search warrants and court orders, investigators accessed those accounts, and seized the proceeds at the same time they took the couple into custody. This marks the largest-ever seizure by the Department of Justice—not just of cryptocurrency, but of any asset class, including narcotics, real estate, and traditional currencies.

Ms. Morgan describes herself on one social media site as the co-founder and CEO of a venture that uses, “artificial intelligence to automate identity verification while proactively detecting fraud.” She also claims to be an expert in, “reverse-engineering black markets to think of better ways to combat fraud and cybercrime.”

It appears that Ms. Morgan and Mr. Lichtenstein partnered to launch a tech company named Endpass sometime after the Bitfinex robbery. They describe the firm in online postings as, “a blockchain startup solving problems in decentralized identity and authentication.”

The criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors on Tuesday alleges that the couple, “employed numerous sophisticated laundering techniques, including using fictitious identities to set up online accounts; utilizing computer programs to automate transactions, a laundering technique that allows for many transactions to take place in a short period of time; depositing the stolen funds into accounts at a variety of virtual currency exchanges and darknet markets and then withdrawing the funds, which obfuscates the trail of the transaction history by breaking up the fund flow.” Investigators also charge that Mr. Lichtenstein and Ms. Morgan converted the stolen bitcoin to other virtual currencies, including “anonymity-enhanced virtual currency,” a form of digital cash that appears specifically designed to conceal the ownership and movement of funds.

Mr. Lichtenstein and Ms. Morgan are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and “conspiracy to defraud the United States”—a broad category of offenses that includes cheating the government out of property or money, or using deceit to interfere with any of its lawful functions. The first count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while the second is punishable by up to five years of incarceration.

Matthew Fenton

Passive Egression

Three Among Every Hundred of Your Neighbors May Soon Be Gone

More than 600 Lower Manhattan households are facing the prospect of being forced from their homes, in the wake of New York State’s eviction moratorium expiring in mid-January.

This data comes from an analysis by the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD), an umbrella organization of 100 non-profit affordable housing and economic development groups that serve low- and moderate-income residents in all five boroughs of the City. ANHD’s report, “New York’s Pandemic Rent Crisis,” documents that eviction proceedings have been filed against 656 rental tenants in the eight residential zip codes that comprise Lower Manhattan.

‘A Weakened Voice for the People of Battery Park City’

Niou Votes Against Redistricting Plan That Will Exile Lower Manhattan to Staten Island

As controversy continues to swirl around a legislative redistricting plan that is widely perceived to disenfranchise Lower Manhattan by severing Battery Park City and the Financial District from the surrounding communities and instead grafting them onto Staten Island, one elected official has taken a stand against the proposal.

As the scheme came before the State Assembly on Thursday, Yuh-Line Niou (who represents Lower Manhattan in that house of the State Legislature) was one of a small handful of lawmakers who voted against the plan.

“Today, I voted to oppose the proposed redistricting maps put forward by the legislature,” Ms. Niou said afterward, “and it is important to me that my constituents understand why I felt it necessary to take this step.

This Week’s Calendar

Wednesday February 9

4-5PM

The Corner, 25 Fulton Street

Love is in the air so get crafty and with stamps and stickers to create a perfect Valentine’s Day card to display. All materials will be provided and the class is free to attend, but please reserve a spot in advance as space is limited.

Creativity, unleashed. Kids of all ages are welcome to get artsy and crafty at our Seaport Kids Crafts’ workshops on Wednesdays. Have your Littles bring their big ideas; we’ll have all the supplies on hand—with a different theme each week.

6PM

Live Remote Meeting – https://live.mcb1.nyc

If you wish to access the meeting using the meeting code and password:

Meeting code/ID: 2337 132 2080; password “mcb1” without the quotes.

To phone into the meeting:

+1-408-418-9388 Access code: 2337 132 2080

Press *3 to raise your hand if you are dialing in through the phone.

Press *6 to unmute yourself when directed to so by the host.

7PM

The World According to China

China Institute

With the 2022 Winter Olympics coming up, China is very much in the global spotlight. What image does the rising power want to project to the world? In her compelling new book, The World According to China, Elizabeth Economy argues that Chinese President Xi Jinping has bold ambitions to transform the international system. Join us for a virtual conversation moderated by Professor Minxin Pei as she explains what that tells us about China—and what it means for the rest of the world.

Thursday February 10

12NOON – 6PM

Blood Drive

6 River Terrace Community Room

Battery Park City Valentine Blood Drive

3PM

Curator’s Tour of SUPERTALL!

Skyscraper Museum

The Museum’s director, Carol Willis, will offer a gallery tour of SUPERTALL 2021 that surveys 58 supertalls worldwide and highlights a dozen recently completed towers that represent some of the most stunning new forms and innovative approaches to structural engineering around the world today. Free.

4PM

Today, cook at home and online with the Da Claudio Ristorante proprietor Claudio Marini and executive chef David Sandoval. Learn to make fusilli avellinesi with lamb ragu, saffron cream, micro greens, and fresh homemade pasta. Free.

6PM

AGENDA

1. 44 Walker Street, outstanding violations for restoration work done on the facade in 2003 – Discussion and possible resolution

2. 47 Vestry Street, application to replace the existing copper and glass cover with new to match – Resolution

7PM

Legacies: Abe Foxman

Museum of Jewish Heritage

Abraham H. Foxman is one of the nation’s preeminent voices against antisemitism and hate. Join the Museum for a conversation with Foxman about his personal background, his life’s work, and his outlook on antisemitism today. Born in Poland in 1940, Foxman survived the Holocaust when his parents entrusted him to their Catholic nursemaid, who baptized him and raised him as her own son. He went on to become a pioneering National Director of ADL from 1987 to 2015, elevating the organization’s national profile and forging connections far beyond the Jewish community. Free; suggested $10 donation.

Friday February 11

7PM

Golden Blossoms: Looking into China’s Exclusive Poetic Couplets

China Institute

Led by Ben Wang, CI’s Senior Lecturer in Language and Humanities, this free virtual workshop is designed for K-12 educators (though we welcome all to attend) to help advance a deeper understanding of the uniqueness of Chinese classical poetry. In addition, by sharing his personal collection of the rare original couplet in calligraphy, Mr. Wang will showcase how the calligraphic art form expresses meaning and personal style, while capturing the moments of a feeling. Free

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found

To place a listing, contact editor@ebroadsheet.com

Albany to Lower Manhattan: Drop Dead

Redistricting Grafts Downtown Assembly District Onto Staten Island

In a move that has stupefied and outraged local leaders, the legislature in Albany has proposed to redraw lines for the State Assembly that will divide Lower Manhattan, and transfer its representation to a district on Staten Island.

The current boundaries are slated for change because the 2020 Census has the legal effect of automatically triggering a recalibration of all election district boundaries within the State. This task has fallen to the New York State Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment (LATFOR), which has operated largely in secret for several weeks. To read more…

‘Our Representative Won’t Give A Damn About Us’

CB1 Discusses Harm to Lower Manhattan from Gerrymandered Assembly District Lines

Wednesday evening’s meeting of the Battery Park City Committee of Community Board 1 became the forum for a vehement discussion of the proposed legislative redistricting that will uproot Battery Park City and the western Financial District from Lower Manhattan, and instead relegate representation of these communities in the State Assembly to Staten Island.

Committee member Jeff Galloway began by noting, “it is manifestly absurd to have an Assembly district shaped this way. The New York State Assembly is the legislative body that is meant to be most closely tied to the people it represents. That’s why there are many more Assembly members than State Senators, and why each Assembly seat represents a smaller district, with a smaller population,” than in the State Senate. To read more…

Get Rich or Get Out

Analysis By Housing Group Cites Declining Affordability in Lower Manhattan

A leading housing advocacy organization has completed an exhaustive look at threats to affordability in every community in the five boroughs, and has found that Lower Manhattan ranks among the ten most at-risk neighborhoods by one key metric, while also placing in the 20 most-endangered by another.

The Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD), an umbrella organization of 100 non-profit affordable housing and economic development groups that serve low- and moderate-income residents in all five boroughs of the City, has published the 2021 edition of its annual roundup, “How Is Affordable Housing Threatened In Your Neighborhood.” For this report, Lower Manhattan was defined as the catchment of Community Board 1, a collection of neighborhoods encompassing 1.5 square miles, bounded roughly by Canal, Baxter, and Pearl Streets, and the Brooklyn Bridge.

De Gustibus

Annual Food Fest Puts Lavish Meals within Reach of Thrifty Epicures

New York’s annual food celebration, Restaurant Week continues for five weeks, until Saturday (February 13).

For those disinclined to venture above Canal Street, the goods news is that of all the 481 establishments participating throughout the City this year, more than five percent are located in Lower Manhattan.

Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets

Tribeca Greenmarket

Greenwich Street & Chambers Street

Every Wednesday & Saturday, 8am-3pm

Food Scrap Collection: Saturdays, 8am-1pm

Open Saturdays and Wednesdays year round

Bowling Green Greenmarket

Green Greenmarket at Bowling Green

Broadway & Whitehall St

Open Tuesday and Thursdays, year-round

Market Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Compost Program: 8 a.m. – 11 a.m.

The Bowling Green Greenmarket brings fresh offerings from local farms to Lower Manhattan’s historic Bowling Green plaza. Twice a week year-round stop by to load up on the season’s freshest fruit, crisp vegetables, beautiful plants, and freshly baked loaves of bread, quiches, and pot pies.

Greenmarket at the Oculus

Oculus Plaza, Fulton St and Church St

CLOSED FOR THE SEASON

The Outdoor Fulton Stall Market

91 South St., bet. Fulton & John Sts.

212-349-1380 info@fultonstallmarket.org

Fulton Street cobblestones between South and Front Sts. across from McNally Jackson Bookstore.

Locally grown produce from Rogowski Farm, Breezy Hill Orchard, and other farmers and small-batch specialty food products, sold directly by their producers. Producers vary from week to week.

SNAP/EBT/P-EBT, Debit/Credit, and Farmers Market Nutrition Program checks accepted at all farmers markets.

TODAY IN HISTORY

February 9

Jefferson and Varina Davis

474 – Zeno is crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

1555 – Bishop of Gloucester John Hooper is burned at the stake.

1775 – American Revolutionary War: The British Parliament declares Massachusetts in rebellion.

1788 – The Habsburg Empire joins the Russo-Turkish War in the Russian camp.

1825 – After no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes in the presidential election of 1824, the United States House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams as President of the United States.

861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama.

1913 – A group of meteors is visible across much of the eastern seaboard of North and South America, leading astronomers to conclude the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth.

1950 – Second Red Scare: Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with Communists.

1964 – The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a “record-busting” audience of 73 million viewers across the USA.

1971 – Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro League player to be voted into the USA’s Baseball Hall of Fame.

1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned Moon landing.

1996 – Discovered by Sigurd Hofmann and colleagues in 1996, Copernicium is a man-made element of which only a few atoms have ever been made. It is formed by fusing lead and zinc atoms in a heavy ion accelerator. It is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Cn and atomic number 112. Its known isotopes are extremely radioactive, and have only been created in a laboratory. The most stable known isotope, copernicium-285, has a half-life of approximately 28 seconds.

1846 – Wilhelm Maybach, German engineer and businessman, founded Maybach (d. 1929)

Births

1737 – Thomas Paine, English-American philosopher, author, and activist (d. 1809)

1773 – William Henry Harrison, American general and politician, 9th President of the United States (d. 1841)

1814 – Samuel J. Tilden, American lawyer and politician, 28th Governor of New York (d. 1886)

1846 – Wilhelm Maybach, German engineer and businessman, founded Maybach (d. 1929)

1909 – Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-Brazilian actress, singer, and dancer (d. 1955)

1909 – Dean Rusk, American colonel and politician, 54th United States Secretary of State (d. 1994)

1942 – Carole King, American singer-songwriter and pianist

1943 – Joseph Stiglitz, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate

1945 – Mia Farrow, American actress

Deaths

1014 – Yang Yanzhao, Chinese general

1135 – Tai Zong, Chinese emperor (b. 1075)

1881 – Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, and philosopher (b. 1821)

1977 – Sergey Ilyushin, Russian engineer and businessman, founded the Ilyushin Design Company (b. 1894)

1984 – Yuri Andropov, Russian lawyer and politician (b. 1914)

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