The wife of a notorious crypto hacker — who rapped under the name Razzlekhan and called herself the “Wall Street Crocodile” — was sentenced to 18 months in prison Monday for helping her husband launder stolen bitcoins now worth $10 billion.
Heather Morgan, 34, was sentenced by a federal judge in Washington, DC — just days after her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, received five years in prison for siphoning 119,754 bitcoins from cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016.
Morgan and Lichtenstein pleaded guilty last year.
Lichtenstein, 35, had claimed that Morgan was not involved in the hack, but only helped hide the stolen bitcoins.
At Morgan’s urging, he agreed to cooperate with authorities on other cryptocurrency theft cases in exchange for reduced sentences for both.
Morgan and Lichtenstein created a complex scheme to launder the stolen cryptocurrency by using fictitious names and moving the funds in small increments so as not to arouse suspicion, according to court records.
The two were arrested in their luxury high-rise apartment on Wall Street in February 2022 – when the stolen bitcoin was worth $71 million.
The digital currency has surged in recent weeks to all-time highs – meaning the loot today would be worth more than $10 billion.
Prosecutors alleged that the “bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde” left 21% of the coins they stole from the Hong Kong-based exchange.
At his sentencing last week, Lichtenstein expressed remorse for “destroying my talents in crime instead of making a positive contribution to society.”
He received credit for the two years and nine months he has served in prison since his arrest in February 2022.
Lichtenstein had pleaded with the judge to spare his wife from prison, blaming himself for her involvement.
“I want to take full responsibility for my actions and make a difference in any way I can,” Lichtenstein said, adding that he hopes he can apply his expertise to fighting cybercrime when he gets out of prison.
Lichtenstein said he told his wife about the hack about three years later, but he initially asked for her help in laundering the proceeds “without explaining exactly what he was doing,” according to prosecutors.
Morgan “was certainly a willing participant and takes full responsibility for her actions, but she was a lower-level participant,” prosecutors wrote.
“Neither the hack nor the cleaning scheme was an impulsive decision. The defendant (Lichtenstein) spent months trying to gain access to Bitfinex’s infrastructure and obtain the access and permissions he needed to orchestrate his hack.”
By postal wire
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