Alleged Bitcoin launderer Heather Morgan, aka Razzlekhan, granted bail

midian182

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What just happened? Heather Morgan, who also uses the moniker Razzlekhan for her rapping career, has been released on bail following her arrest for allegedly laundering billions of dollars stolen in the Bitfinex hack of 2016. Her husband, apprehended at the same time as Morgan, remains in custody.

Last week brought news that Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, had been accused of laundering Bitcoin stolen from the Bitfinex exchange six years ago. The 119,756 Bitcoin stolen in 2016 was worth about $61 million at the time but would be closer to $4.5 billion today. Last week, the DoJ seized about 94,000 of the stolen BTC valued at roughly $3.6 billion.

Federal agents were able to access the wallet containing the stolen Bitcoin in January after decrypting a file saved to Lichtenstein’s cloud storage account that contained 2,000 wallet addresses and their private keys. Blockchain analysis confirmed that nearly all of the addresses were directly linked to the hack.

Despite Chief US District Judge Beryl A. Howell describing evidence against the pair as “so weighty as to be overwhelming,” Morgan was allowed to post a bail of $3 million and told she could await trial at home once posted.

Lichtenstein’s bail offer of $5 million was rejected, and he must remain in a Washington D.C. jail—he was denied because the government alleges he was in control of most of the stolen funds. Both Morgan’s and Lichtenstein’s parents posted their houses as collateral for their bail.

The government argued that both individuals were a flight risk and could use the unaccounted Bitcoin—or the 70 gold coins they allegedly bought that can’t be found—to flee to a country where they are unlikely to be extradited, such as Russia (Lichtenstein was born in the country) or Ukraine.

In addition to Morgan being mocked for her toe-curlingly cringing rap videos, prosecutors noted that the lyrics from one of the tracks suggested she was no stranger to hacking: “Spear phish your password/all your funds transferred.” The number of burner phones, hollowed-out books, and hardware crypto wallets found in their apartment were probably quite incriminating, too.

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This is a bit of a confusing title: the news item could be read as bitcoin used to launder actual legal tender. This isn't the case: this are coins that were stolen and are being laundered.

The distinction is important because *if* those coins were originally generated to launder actual legal tender coming off say, drug money, none of that would be trace-able. They just want to return the already laundered and clean bit coins to the people they stole it from so it's like a second layer of laundering so technically true, but *VERY* deceiving and not forthcoming about one of the major concerns with bitcoin which is laundering legal tender for criminal enterprises.
 
My favourite part of these articles is the link to the rapping videos. If she thinks that's quality rapping, that should be worth at least some jail time surely?

Seriously, that attempt at 'rapping' and music should be a felony alone.
 
Throw the book at both of them.

If she was "ugly" you'd throw her into a cell and throw away the cell.

why the double standard?
 
Waterboarding doesn't have sh** on that horrible racket. If I had to listen to that on repeat, jamming ice picks in my ears would be preferable.
 
Her name should be called M&M&M ---> Mix Master Morgan.

On a serious note I had a friend that lived 3 houses down and we use to play basketball all the time when we were kids. He posted pics of him and his father waving money around bragging they won at a casino weeks later him and his father were in the news trying to break fake $100 bills at their local Cumberland Farms gas station lol.
 
Throw the book at both of them.

If she was "ugly" you'd throw her into a cell and throw away the cell.

why the double standard?

Bro what are you talking about?

You think she's pretty?..

You really think she qualify as one who got by on her "looks"?..?.? Lol

If it truly was about looks then she would have remained in jail for sure.

She's nothing to write home about and if you think so maybe you need to raise your standards a bit.
 
"Both Morgan’s and Lichtenstein’s parents posted their houses as collateral for their bail."
------------
May as well....
If they were bought with stolen bitcoins, they will likely lose them anyway

and her bail will be rescinded if this is found to be true
 
So why were all her bitcoin passwords in a public cloud?

A contingency plan to access the accounts from anywhere in the world without leaving a trace on her own personal computers

Insurance in case her personal machines were stolen / destroyed by fire / confiscated by the feds or any other conceivable mishap


Bail is a mistake for this girl

It is an opportunity to access the remainder of stolen coins through a 3rd party

There's likely a court order to tap any new burner phones within 50 feet of her ankle bracelet
 
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