Heather Morgan, also known as “Razzlekhan,” has been the subject of prosecutors seeking an 18-month prison sentence for her involvement in laundering 120,000 bitcoins stolen from Bitfinex during a 2016 hack. In August 2023, Morgan admitted to one count of money laundering conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, each carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Initially, it was believed that Morgan and her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, were only involved in laundering the stolen funds. However, Lichtenstein later confessed to being the original hacker and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. According to court documents, Lichtenstein acted alone in the hack in 2016 and only involved Morgan in the money laundering scheme four years later in 2020.
Prosecutors acknowledged that Morgan may have been pressured into participating in the criminal activities due to loyalty to her husband and a desire to maintain their life together. Despite this, they highlighted her active involvement in aiding and enhancing her husband’s illegal activities. The prosecutors recommended a lenient sentence for Morgan due to her early acceptance of responsibility and assistance to law enforcement. However, they also noted instances where Morgan attempted to obstruct justice by destroying evidence during the investigation.
In addition to requesting jail time, prosecutors have asked the court to order Morgan to return the seized cryptocurrencies directly from the Bitfinex Hack Wallet, amounting to over $6 billion at current prices. Morgan’s sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 15 at 2:00 PM in Washington, D.C., following Lichtenstein’s sentencing.
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Cheyenne Ligon, the CoinDesk news reporter covering this story, focuses on crypto regulation and policy and has no significant crypto holdings. For more updates on this case and other cryptocurrency industry news, follow @cheyenneligon on Twitter.