Heather Morgan—additionally recognized by her rap title “Razzlekhan”—has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for her function in laundering stolen Bitcoin
$91,835.84
.
The sentencing was delivered on November 18 by Decide Colleen Kollar-Kotelly within the District Courtroom of Washington, DC.
Her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, stole 119,754 Bitcoins (value $10.9 billion on the time of writing) from the cryptocurrency change Bitfinex
$414.5M
again in 2016. This determine marked the biggest crypto seizure ever recorded by the US Division of Justice.
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Lichtenstein and Morgan have been arrested in 2022 after admitting to laundering the big sum of stolen Bitcoin. Initially, investigators believed the duo’s involvement was restricted to cash laundering. Nevertheless, Lichtenstein later confessed in courtroom to being the mastermind behind the Bitfinex hack itself.
On November 14, Decide Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Lichtenstein to a five-year jail time period, shorter than the 20-year most outlined in sentencing tips. Prosecutors cited his cooperation in different investigations and his lack of prior felony historical past as the first elements that contributed to the lowered sentence.
Morgan’s sentencing adopted her responsible plea in August 2023 to expenses of conspiracy to commit cash laundering and to defraud america authorities.
With each sentences now handed down, the conclusion of this high-profile case serves as a reminder of the authorized repercussions that await those that have interaction in cybercrime and monetary fraud. It additionally illustrates the dedication of legislation enforcement businesses to adapt and reply successfully to the challenges posed by cryptocurrencies.
In different information, Polter Finance, a decentralized platform for lending and borrowing, shut down its operations on November 17 after it misplaced $12 million to a hack. How did this occur? Learn the complete story.
Gode is a Web3 Market Analyst who researches a very powerful trade occasions and interprets how they have an effect on the broader Web3 area. Her formal training in media tradition & digital rhetoric permits her to make use of a methodical strategy to evaluating important Web3 information information, together with large-scale occasions and the broader social sentiment inside the ecosystem.Gode is a mutilingual skilled, having studied in a number of universities all throughout Europe. This permits her to have a one-of-a-kind alternative to research Web3 social sentiments spanning completely different cultures and languages and, in flip, develop a a lot deeper understanding of how the Web3 area is rising inside completely different communities. With the remainder of her crew, Gode works to establish essential crypto information patterns and supply unbiased and data-driven info.Gode’s passions embody working and speaking with folks, and when she’s not researching Web3 information, she spends her time touring and watching true crime documentaries.