coindesk.com
Prosecutors have requested that Heather Morgan – better known by her rap moniker “Razzlekhan” – be sentenced to just 18 months behind bars for her role in laundering 120,000 bitcoins stolen from Bitfinex in a 2016 hack.
In August 2023, Morgan pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, each of which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Though Morgan and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein were first believed to only have laundered the proceeds of the hack (worth approximately $7.5 billion at today’s value), Lichtenstein later admitted 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 carried out the hack alone in 2016, and did not tell his wife or enlist her help with laundering the money until four years later, in 2020, making her only an accessory to the crime after it had already occurred.
“She was in some ways thrust into the middle of a serious criminal scheme without her initial consent, and undoubtedly felt compelled to support it out of a sense of loyalty to her husband and desire to preserve their life together,” prosecutors wrote in the memo. “That does negate the seriousness of her conduct, as she did ultimately join her husband’s conspiracy and use her own skillset to aid and enhance his criminal endeavors.”
Prosecutors have suggested a lenient sentence for Morgan in light of her early acceptance of responsibility and apparently “substantial assistance to law enforcement,” as well as the fact that she herself spent very little of the criminal proceeds.
However, they also urged the judge to take into account that, at several points during the investigation, Morgan attempted to obstruct justice by destroying evidence – throwing a computer down a garbage chute, deleting data from devices, and, during law enforcement’s execution of a search warrant at her and Lichtenstein’s Manhattan apartment, pretended to be grabbing her cat from under the bed while secretly shutting off her phone.
In addition to requesting jail time for Morgan, prosecutors have asked the court to order her to “return the cryptocurrencies seized by the government directly from the Bitfinex Hack Wallet – including approximately 94,643.29837084 BTC, 117,376.52651940 Bitcoin Cash (BCH), 117,376.58178024 Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV), and 118,102.03258447 in Bitcoin Gold (BTG) valued at more than $6 billion at current prices – as in-kind restitution to Bitfinex.”
Morgan is set to be sentenced on Nov. 15 at 2:00 PM in Washington, D.C., one day after Lichtenstein is sentenced.