Razzlekhan, crypto’s most embarrassing rapper, gets 18 months in Bitfinex hack case

Washington – The woman who dubbed herself the “Crocodile of Wall Street” and “Razzlekhan” in rap videos was ordered to serve 18 months behind bars for helping her hacker husband launder cryptocurrency he stole from the Bitfinex exchange.

Heather Morgan, 34, was sentenced on Nov 18 in Washington federal court.

Last week, her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, got five years in prison for his role in the scheme, which stemmed from his 2016 hack of the exchange and the theft of Bitcoin currently worth billions of dollars. Both pleaded guilty in 2023.

Morgan was not involved in the hack, and her husband said he recruited her to help hide the loot he had stolen.

They could have faced more prison time, but he agreed to aid the United States in other crypto prosecutions, and she persuaded him to cooperate with the authorities.

The Verge, which called her “crypto’s most embarrassing rapper”, said she made crypto-themed rap videos under the name Razzlekhan. The whole story is expected to be immortalised in a Netflix documentary series and a film called Dutch & Razzlekhan, the tech news website said.

According to prosecutors, Morgan and Lichtenstein engaged in complex money-laundering techniques, including creating accounts under fictitious identities, moving the stolen proceeds in small amounts, and breaking up the trail of transactions by depositing and withdrawing funds from crypto exchanges and darknet markets.

They purchased non-fungible tokens, gold and Walmart gift cards, court records show. 

At the time of the hack, the stolen Bitcoin was worth about US$71 million (S$95 million).

Now it is valued in the billions of dollars as the price of Bitcoin has surged from US$580 to more than US$90,000.

The couple laundered 21 per cent of what was stolen in the Bitfinex hack, according to the government. BLOOMBERG