Amateur rapper and her husband accused of laundering $4.5 billion of Bitcoin stolen in...

midian182

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What just happened? The Justice Department says it has seized around $3.6 billion worth of Bitcoin stolen during the 2016 hack of the Bitfinex currency exchange, marking the department’s largest financial seizure ever. A husband and his amateur rapper/financial influencer wife were arrested for allegedly trying to launder the crypto.

Back in 2016, crypto exchange Bitfinex was hacked. Thieves made away with approximately 119,756 bitcoin, which was then worth about $61 million but would be closer to $4.5 billion today. The DoJ seized about 94,000 BTC last week valued at roughly $3.6 billion.

The DoJ alleges that Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan, conspired to launder the stolen Bitcoin, which was transferred to a wallet controlled by Lichtenstein. Around 25,000 BTC were transferred out of that wallet and laundered through a series of small, complex transactions across multiple platforms, designed to conceal the path of the stolen crypto.

"Today’s arrests, and the department’s largest financial seizure ever, show that cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals," said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. "In a futile effort to maintain digital anonymity, the defendants laundered stolen funds through a labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions."

A Justice Department official declined to comment on whether Lichtenstein and Morgan were involved in the hack itself, though it is implied in the DoJ release.

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.

Lichtenstein and Morgan appeared in a federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday. A Judge set Lichtenstein’s bond at $5 million and $3 million for Morgan. They face up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the US government.

Lichtenstein is described as a "technology entrepreneur, coder and investor” on his LinkedIn page, as well as the founder of blockchain-based "decentralized identity platform” Endpass—currently offline. Morgan, meanwhile, appeared to be pursuing a career as a rapper, performing under the moniker Razzlekhan, or RZK, who she describes as "like Genghis Khan, but with more pizzazz," and money, allegedly.

“The infamous Crocodile of Wall Street strikes again! More fearless and more shameless than ever before, she's taking on everyone from big software companies to healthcare to finance bros.,” reads her website, confusingly.

In between rapping, she also acts as a financial influencer.

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Give em the Max Sentence allowable under the guidelines. Will send a message to other crypto hackers on what the penalty will be when they are busted!
 
"This song represents who I am: a badass CEO and female rapper, who's ready to take on Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and any other place that oppresses individual uniqueness and self expression."

What the actual shite. My ears are bleeding, my soul is cringing.
 
Give em the Max Sentence allowable under the guidelines. Will send a message to other crypto hackers on what the penalty will be when they are busted!
Uh, I love these "give 'em max sentence!" posts where the poster has no clue what they're talking about.

First of all, crypto has been a real boon for cyber criminals and that isn't going to change any time soon. So you know, invest all your savings in crypto kids, it's the way of the future!

Giving random *****s maximum sentences isn't going to deter anyone. Which brings me to my second point, these *****s didn't hack anyone. The stolen coins were transferred to them and they tried to launder it. It's like robbing a jewelry store and then fencing the stolen goods to someone else to sell. Giving maximum penalty to the fencer won't deter the actual thieves.
 
I'd bet real money those two had no idea the bitcoin in question was stolen. They both already had money and a measure of fame. They would have been smart enough not to take the risk..
 
Since Bitfenix presumably made up the $61 million in losses to investors at the time of the heist, does this mean they now get to keep the $3.6 billion recovered for a massive windfall profit?
 
And what in the hell is an "amateur rapper?" I thought they were all amateurs.
? If you are established and successful, maybe been in the field for an amount of time and are well known, experienced etc, then I believe that qualifies you as a Pro, meaning you are not an amateur. I wouldn't call Eminem an amateur rapper now. That would be unjustified and ridiculous.

Amateur
(noun)
Someone who is unqualified or insufficiently skillful.
 
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