Bitfinex Hacker Heather Morgan Pleaded Guilty in $4.5 Billion Crypto Laundering Scheme

A New York tech entrepreneur and his wife, an online rapper, pleaded guilty on Thursday to laundering stolen funds from Bitfinex, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.

Ilya Lichtenstein made his case during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington.

His wife Heather Morgan, who used the hip-hop pseudonym “Razzlekhan” to promote her music, faces an additional charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Lichtenstein and Morgan were arrested in February 2022 for laundering over 100,000 stolen bitcoins after hacking Bitfinex in 2016.

Bitcoin was worth $71 million at the time, but had appreciated over $4.5 billion by the time of their arrest.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said at the time that the $3.6 billion in a*sets prosecutors had recovered from the couple was the largest financial seizure in Justice Department history.

Prosecutors want the couple to give up $3 billion.

An entry in the docket in late July shows Lichtenstein and Morgan reached their plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington.