The 2016 Bitfinex hack has seen Heather Morgan, a self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur, and prolific writer, being charged with money laundering. The resident of the Big Apple, Heather Morgan has claimed to be a lot of things. Her LinkedIn bio states that she is a serial entrepreneur, irreverent comedic rapper, prolific writer, and investor in B2B software companies with a high potential for growth. But her bio doesn’t seem to mention anything about her capability to help lauded cryptocurrency that has been hacked.
Comedian-rapper Gets Accused Of Bitfinex Money Laundering
On the morning of Tuesday, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation agents prosecuted Morgan- who also goes by her rapper alter-ego Razzlekhan, and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein for allegedly conspiring to launder Bitfinex cryptocurrency, that saw around 119.756 BTC drained from the crypto exchange back in 2016. The pair have declared their innocence loudly during a court appearance in New York on Tuesday and were then released on multi-million-dollar bonds.
The BTC bonds stolen from Bitfinex were worth around $72 million back in August 2016 but currently have a valuation of $5.1 billion. Since the hack in 2016, most of the individuals already connected to the stolen coins have regularly moved minuscule amounts of Bitcoin in separate transactions- which has left the bulk of the funds completely untouched.
According to the complaint from the Department of Justice, the pair has been charged with money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the United States, along with the crypto exchange Bitfinex. However, they are not being charged with carrying the hack out by themselves. Incidentally, the first change is punishable up to 20 years in jail, with the second charge up to 5 years.
