{"id":812111,"date":"2024-12-12T23:16:04","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T05:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/12\/prosecutors-call-for-18-month-sentence-for-heather-morgan\/"},"modified":"2024-12-12T23:16:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T05:16:04","slug":"prosecutors-call-for-18-month-sentence-for-heather-morgan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/12\/prosecutors-call-for-18-month-sentence-for-heather-morgan\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutors Call for 18-Month Sentence for Heather Morgan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bitcoins <\/p>\n<div id=\"page\">\n<div id=\"content_box\">\n<header>\n<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" alt src=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/41169a86822e6585e2f87627f7d7ef3a?s=32&#038;d=mm&#038;r=g\"  height=\"32\" width=\"32\" decoding=\"async\"><\/p>\n<p><span><span>By <a href=\"https:\/\/fullycrypto.com\/author\/mahu_bs\" title=\"Posts by Mark Hunter\" rel=\"author\">Mark Hunter<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<p>2 months ago<span>Fri Oct 11 2024 09:02:36<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<p><img width=\"1300\" height=\"890\" src=\"https:\/\/fullycrypto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Prosecutors-Call-for-18-Month-Sentence-for-Heather-Morgan.png\" alt=\"bitcoins Prosecutors-Call-for-18-Month-Sentence-for-Heather-Morgan\" title decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-layzr=\"https:\/\/fullycrypto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Prosecutors-Call-for-18-Month-Sentence-for-Heather-Morgan.png\">\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span><span>Reading Time: <\/span> <span> 2<\/span> <span>minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span>Prosecutors have recommended an 18-month prison sentence for Heather Morgan, also known as the rapper \u201cRazzlekhan,\u201d for her role in laundering stolen Bitcoin<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span>Morgan played a lesser role compared to her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, who admitted to orchestrating the 2016 Bitfinex hack<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><span>She has cooperated with authorities, providing substantial assistance, which prosecutors cited in their call for a more lenient sentence<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>Federal prosecutors are asking for an 18-month prison term for Heather Morgan, who pleaded guilty in August 2023 to her involvement in laundering funds stolen during the 2016 Bitfinex hack. Prosecutors argue that Morgan was a lower-level participant compared to her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, who was responsible for hacking the cryptocurrency exchange and stealing around 120,000 bitcoinc. The pair conspired to launder the stolen funds, but Morgan\u2019s assistance with the investigation has led to a request for a lighter sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Bitcoins <span>Lichtenstein Hacked Bitfinex<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span>Morgan, known for her rap persona \u201cRazzlekhan,\u201d and Lichtenstein were <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fullycrypto.com\/bitfinex-hack-arrests-five-things-we-know\"><span>arrested in 2022<\/span><\/a><span> after authorities uncovered their involvement in laundering $4.5 billion in cryptocurrency stolen from Bitfinex. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fullycrypto.com\/bitfinex-launderer-pleads-guilty-to-2016-hack\"><span>Lichtenstein eventually admitted to hacking the exchange<\/span><\/a><span> in addition to laundering the funds and faces up to 20 years in prison as a result.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Prosecutors have acknowledged Morgan\u2019s cooperation and her more limited involvement in the initial theft, with court documents claiming that she was unaware of her husband\u2019s role in the hack but later helped him launder the stolen Bitcoin.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Bitcoins <span>Morgan Eventually Helped Launder Funds<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span>In their filing, prosecutors emphasized that Morgan had made a \u201cconscious decision\u201d to participate in the laundering scheme, which included using various tools like darknet markets and crypto mixers to hide the trail of the funds:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>She was in some ways thrust into the middle of a serious criminal scheme without her initial consent, and undoubtedly felt compelled to support it out of a sense of loyalty to her husband and desire to preserve their life together. That does not negate the seriousness of her conduct, as she did ultimately join her husband\u2019s conspiracy and use her own skillset to aid and enhance his criminal endeavors.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>As a result of this reduced role, prosecutors are advocating for a significantly reduced sentence of 18 months, with sentencing set to take place in November, where Morgan could technically face up to 10 years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>She has not yet revealed whether Razzlekhan will be releasing a song to memorialize her experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> Mark Hunter <a href=\"https:\/\/fullycrypto.com\/prosecutors-call-for-18-month-sentence-for-heather-morgan?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=prosecutors-call-for-18-month-sentence-for-heather-morgan\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Mark Hunter 2 months agoFri Oct 11 2024 09:02:36 Reading Time: 2 minutes Prosecutors have recommended an 18-month prison sentence for Heather Morgan, also known as the rapper \u201cRazzlekhan,\u201d for her role in laundering stolen Bitcoin Morgan played a lesser role compared to her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, who admitted to orchestrating the 2016 Bitfinex<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":812112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[547,343],"tags":[11476],"class_list":{"0":"post-812111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-month","8":"category-prosecutors","9":"tag-bitcoins"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}