According to a court ruling on November 18, Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan faces nearly two years in prison for her involvement in the $10.8 billion Bitfinex hack
Morgan and his colleague Ilya Lichtenstein had a plan to steal 120,000 bitcoins worth $17 million from Bitfinex. Following their arrest in February 2022, the criminal duo pleaded guilty to conspiracy and money laundering in July 2023.
Morgan knowingly committed major crimes and only stopped when compelled to do so by law enforcement, according to Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. According to Morgan, she found out about Lichtenstein’s theft after it had already happened. In her court statement, she expressed her guilt and shame for assisting her husband with the Bitfinex hack.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said:
You were true partners in this laundering scheme. You did not stop voluntarily but stopped when you got arrested.
As suggested by prosecutors, a U.S. judge decided that Morgan should get an 18-month sentence. Last Monday, Lichtenstein, the mastermind behind the hack, received a five-year prison sentence.
The maximum punishment would have been 25 years in prison. However, Lichtenstein and Morgan laundered approximately 1% of the illegal profits. After federal authorities claimed that the pair had cheated the United States and used carefully thought-out methods to clean the money, they also forfeited all of the heist’s gains.
Investigators claim that in order to launder the stolen wealth, Lichtenstein and Morgan transferred cryptocurrency on dark web markets, purchased gold, swapped assets across many chains, and concealed their on-chain footprints using crypto mixers.