Crypto heist couple Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan — who were charged with laundering $4.5 billion in hacked Bitcoin in 2016 — are reportedly preparing to plead guilty ahead of their next scheduled court appearance on Aug. 3.
The so-called “Bitcoin Bonnie & Clyde” have been newly charged within the case with a document referred to as an information, which lays out criminal charges and is comparable to an indictment, but which doesn’t require a grand jury’s vote, a Washington, D.C., federal court document filed Friday showed.
Federal prosecutors have been known to make use of the special documents when defendants conform to plead guilty.
Russian-born Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife Morgan, 32, previously pleaded not guilty in a February 2022 case that charged them of cash laundering and conspiracy to defraud in america.
The pair were arrested at their Manhattan apartment earlier that month for allegedly attempting to launder an astounding $4.5 billion in cryptocurrency that had been stolen from Hong Kong’s Bitfinex, one among the world’s largest virtual cryptocurrency exchanges, in 2016.
Federal authorities accused the couple of attempting to launder 119,754 bitcoin. On the time of the theft, the crypto amounted to about $70 million.
Nevertheless, on the time of their arrest, the value inflated into the billions. Today, 119,754 bitcoin is price nearly $3.6 billion.
Lichtenstein — a Russian emigre referred to as “Dutch” — was not granted bail, and has been in a Washington, D.C., jail since his arrest after being billed a flight risk.
Morgan — higher referred to as the questionably talented rapper “Razzlekhan” who shares songs about being “the crocodile of Wall Street” — is free on a $3 million bond pending the final result of negotiations.
The character of the costs stated within the document are confidential, though the court docket showed that District of Columbia Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered the couple’s defense to offer plea paperwork by Friday.
Judge Kollar-Kotelly said the defendants’ paperwork must include “charged offense(s) and statutory provision; charge(s) in plea and statutory provision; elements of the offense; copy of the plea agreement; penalties; and [federal sentencing] guideline calculations,” in line with the docket.
The Post has reached out to Lichtenstein’s counsel at Cahill Gordon & Reindell, in addition to Morgan’s legal team at Burnham & Gorokhov.
If found guilty, Lichtenstein and Morgan could withstand 25 years years behind bars. It’s unclear how a plea deal could affect their sentence.
Morgan has been spending her 24-hour house arrest holed up within the rented Wall Street high-rise she once shared together with her husband.
The downtime had Morgan on the lookout for distant work. In September, she tweeted saying: “On the lookout for distant B2B growth /marketing /sales /copywriting /demand gen work. Might be contract or potentially full-time. Have 10 years experience, including remotely managing distributed teams.”
She also asked that only “serious opportunities with B2B (tech) corporations” reach out.
The post got here before a judge granted Morgan’s request to amend the terms of her home confinement.
In January, US Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui ruled that she could work from her employer’s Recent York office three days per week, from 10 a.m. to eight:30 p.m.
Faruqui also granted Morgan permission to make use of a pc and a smartphone — with monitoring software installed on each — as a way to earn a living from home, though she remained barred from carrying out any cryptocurrency transactions.
Morgan’s tweet appeared to have worked, as her lawyer, Eugene Gorokhov, said in a court filing that she was “within the role of growth marketing and business development specialist.” Her employer’s identity was kept confidential for safety reasons.
Except for the tweet on Morgan’s job hunt, she’s been quiet on all social media fronts, even halting her YouTube videos where she shared rap songs, satirically, about her being a hacking nerd.
On Instagram, the last post shared to Razzlekhan’s account was on Feb. 7, 2022, where Morgan recorded herself complaining that she seems like “a tortured dog going to the vet” when she goes to the nail salon.
