Heather Morgan Faces Potential Jail Time in Bitfinex Bitcoin Laundering Case
The post Heather Morgan Faces Potential Jail Time in Bitfinex Bitcoin Laundering Case appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
TLDR Federal prosecutors recommend 18-month jail sentence for Heather Morgan (“Razzlekhan”) for her role in laundering stolen Bitfinex Bitcoin Morgan provided “substantial assistance” to the government, leading to a plea bargain She pled guilty to money laundering and fraud charges in August 2023 Her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, admitted to being behind the 2016 Bitfinex hack Prosecutors seek return of seized crypto assets worth over $6 billion as restitution to Bitfinex Federal prosecutors have recommended an 18-month jail sentence for Heather Morgan, known by her rapper persona “Razzlekhan,” for her involvement in laundering Bitcoin stolen from the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange in 2016. This development comes as part of the ongoing legal proceedings surrounding one of the largest cryptocurrency heists in history. Morgan, along with her husband Ilya Lichtenstein, was arrested in February 2022 in connection with the laundering of approximately 120,000 Bitcoin, valued at about $7.2 billion at current prices. The couple’s case has attracted significant attention due to the scale of the theft and Morgan’s colorful online presence as a rapper and social media personality. In a court filing on October 9, 2023, prosecutors argued for a relatively lenient sentence for Morgan, citing her “substantial assistance” to the government as part of a plea bargain reached in July 2023. The filing also noted that Morgan was a “lower-level participant” compared to her husband and had only spent a small portion of the stolen funds. Morgan entered a guilty plea in August 2023 to charges of money laundering and fraud. These charges carry a maximum combined sentence of 10 years in prison. However, the prosecution’s recommendation of 18 months reflects her cooperation and lesser role in the crime. The case took an unexpected turn when Lichtenstein admitted to being the perpetrator of the actual 2016 Bitfinex hack, in addition to his…
Filed under: News - @ October 11, 2024 3:28 pm