Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan pleaded guilty (2024)

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What happened to Lichtenstein and Morgan? ›

While evading police, Morgan masqueraded as a rapper and tech entrepreneur. As part of a plea deal, Lichtenstein admitted he was behind the hack. The couple both pleaded guilty to money laundering, but Morgan pleaded guilty to an additional count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Now He's a US Government Witness. Ilya Lichtenstein's testimony helped shed more light on the motives behind the 2016 Bitfinex hack and how he managed to launder millions of dollars.

Lichtenstein pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Morgan pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years of in prison.

Heather Morgan, 31, is now employed by an unknown tech firm despite the legal peril she and her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, face over accusations they attempted to launder 119,754 bitcoin that they are said to have stolen when the Bitfinex crypto exchange was hacked in 2016.

It is the world's smallest country to border two countries. Liechtenstein is divided into 11 municipalities. Its capital is Vaduz, and its largest municipality is Schaan. It is a member of the United Nations, the European Free Trade Association, and the Council of Europe.

The husband, Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein, a Russian-born émigré, was an investor and part-time mentalist magician.

Lichtenstein, along with his social-media rapper wife, who dubbed herself the “Crocodile of Wall Street”, pleaded guilty to a money-laundering conspiracy tied to the theft of billions of dollars of bitcoin from the exchange.

Heather Morgan, who used the hip-hop alias "Razzlekhan" to push her music online, and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein were initially arrested in February 2022. They are set to appear for a plea hearing on Aug. 3 before Senior Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington, court records showed.

Eventually, the painstaking detective work of government officials, and the innate transparency of the blockchain and its lack of red tape led to the arrests.

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Is Lichtenstein still alive? ›

September 29, 1997 (age 73 years), NYU Langone Health, New York, NY

Roy Lichtenstein / Died

Geography, poverty and being really friendly saved Liechtenstein's bacon (or its autonomy, in this case). Liechtenstein remained closely tied to Austria until World War I, when the devastation of war saw almost everything in the area completely bankrupted.

A husband and wife, whose eccentricities and alleged crimes earned them the nickname “Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde,” pleaded guilty to orchestrating a $4.5 billion money-laundering scheme linked to the 2016 hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex.

5. Liechtenstein's per capita GDP is $165,028 — the second-highest in the world. Its GDP is surpassed only by Monaco's, the lavishly wealthy city-state on the French Riviera, where the per capita GDP is $166,726 and an estimated one-third of the population are millionaires.