Heather Morgan, the Bitfinex hacker, was given a light jail sentence by the prosecution because she gave the authorities “substantial assistance.”
Rapper “Razzlekhan,” Heather Morgan, is wanted by US prosecutors to serve eighteen months in prison for her involvement in the 2016 laundering of one hundred and twenty thousand Bitcoin that had been taken from Bitfinex.
Federal prosecutors sought a more lenient sentence for Morgan in a petition dated October 9, citing her “substantial assistance” in her and her husband Ilya Lichtenshtein’s July 2023 plea agreement.
Additionally, prosecutors suggested that Heather Morgan receive a reduced term since she was a “lower-level participant, ” compared to Lichtenstein.” She had only spent a “small fraction” of the items that the two had stolen.
In August 2023, Morgan entered a guilty plea to charges of money laundering and fraud for his role in the laundering of Bitcoin BTC$60,608.00, which is presently valued at $7.2 billion. A maximum combined term of ten years in jail is awaiting her.
At first, it was thought that Morgan and Lichtenstein were exclusively in charge of laundering the money taken during the Bitfinex hack 2016. Lichtenstein later confessed to being the hacker and pleaded guilty to money laundering charges.
Lichtenstein, who faces a potential term of 20 years in jail, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Morgan was “initially unaware,” according to government prosecutors, of how Lichtenstein had acquired the 120,000 BTC. However, by early 2020, Lichtenstein had informed her that he was behind the hack, and she had helped him launder the money and plotted to hide his involvement.
According to the prosecutor’s complaint, “she consciously decided to engage in specific criminal activity, helping her husband launder millions of dollars in stolen funds for their gain.”
Prosecutors said, “The defendant knowingly participated in the money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud over the years. It was not a momentary lapse or impulsive decision.”
Prosecutors further stated that Morgan and Lichtenstein utilized a “variety of technologically sophisticated means” to launder the stolen Bitcoin, including darknet markets, cryptocurrency mixers, and non-compliant cryptocurrency exchanges to hide their paper trail.
Additionally, the government claimed that Morgan buried actual gold coins at a “secret location” that she later revealed to the authorities after using some of the stolen money to buy them.
In addition to Morgan’s 18-month sentence, the prosecution requested that the court grant her an in-kind reparation order to Bitfinex for the cryptocurrency assets the government took from the “Bitfinex Hack Wallet.”
About 95,000 Bitcoin, 117,400 Bitcoin Cash (BCH), 117,400 Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV), and 118,100 Bitcoin Gold (BTG)—worth over $6 billion—are all contained in the wallet.
The day after Lichtenstein is supposed to be sentenced on November 14, Morgan’s sentencing hearing is planned for November 15.
