A infamous crypto hacker’s spouse — who rapped beneath the identify Razzlekhan and styled herself because the “Crocodile of Wall Avenue” — was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday for serving to her husband launder stolen bitcoin now price $10 billion.
Heather Morgan, 34, was handed the sentence by a federal choose in Washington, DC – simply days after her partner, Ilya Lichtenstein, got five years in prison for swiping 119,754 bitcoin from the Bitfinex cryptocurrency alternate in 2016.
Morgan and Lichtenstein each pleaded responsible final yr.
Lichtenstein, 35, had claimed Morgan wasn’t concerned in the hack, however solely helped cover the stolen bitcoin.
At Morgan’s urging, he agreed to cooperate with authorities on different instances of stolen cryptocurrency in alternate for lowered sentences for each of them.
Morgan and Lichtenstein engineered a posh scheme to launder stolen cryptocurrency utilizing fictitious names and shifting the funds in small increments in order not to arouse suspicion, in accordance to courtroom data.
The 2 had been arrested at their luxurious high-rise residence on Wall Avenue in February 2022 – when the stolen bitcoin was price $71 million.
The digital forex has soared in current weeks to all-time highs – which means that the loot as we speak could be price greater than $10 billion {dollars}.
Prosecutors alleged that the “bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde” laundered 21% of the cash that they stole from the Hong Kong-based alternate.
At his sentencing final week, Lichtenstein expressed regret for “losing my abilities on crime as a substitute of a optimistic contribution to society”
He received credit score for the 2 years and 9 months that he has spent in jail since his February 2022 arrest.
Lichtenstein had pleaded with the choose to spare his spouse from having to go to prison, blaming himself for her involvement.
“I need to take full accountability for my actions and make amends any approach I can,” mentioned Lichtenstein, including he hopes that he can apply his experience to battle cybercrime when he will get out of prison..
Lichtenstein mentioned he instructed his spouse concerning the hack about three years later, however he initially solicited her assist in laundering the proceeds “with out explaining precisely what he was doing,” in accordance to prosecutors.
Morgan “was definitely a prepared participant and bears full accountability for her actions, however she was a lower-level participant,” prosecutors wrote.
“Neither the hack nor the laundering scheme was an impulsive resolution. The defendant (Lichtenstein) spent months trying to achieve entry to Bitfinex’s infrastructure and get the accesses and permissions he wanted in order to orchestrate his hack.”
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