Razzlekhan, Husband To Plead Guilty To Money Laundering Billions In Crypto
Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan, seen here in a video for her 2019 song, “Versace Bedouin.”
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The crypto crime power couple who were accused of laundering billions in bitcoin stemming from a 2016 hack of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange are now set to plead guilty, federal court records show.
The two were arrested in February 2022 at their Manhattan apartment, and their wild tale captivated the world. Shortly after their arrests the world quickly discovered Heather Morgan’s rap alter ego as “Razzlekhan,” in which she sang in the 2019 track “Versace Bedouin” that she is “a rapper, an economist, a journalist, a writer, a CEO, and a dirty, dirty, dirty ho.”
On Friday, an online federal court docket noted that Heather Morgan, and her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, are expected to plead guilty in a federal court hearing in Washington, DC next month. Documents submitted to the court on Thursday show that each defendant faces one count of money laundering conspiracy and that Morgan also faces one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Federal prosecutors are asking the court that the couple be made to forfeit the approximate $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency. These assets also include “assorted U.S. and Canadian gold coins excavated and recovered by law enforcement from LOCATION 1, a premises in California known to the defendants and the Government,” which authorities say are additionally the result of the couple’s ill-gotten gains.
Neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys responded to Forbes’ request for comment.
Morgan, who once ran a small-time marketing and copywriting firm and also was an aspiring and colorful rap artist who worked under the name “Razzlekhan,” and Lichtenstein, who came to California in 2010 to seek his fortune in Silicon Valley, were not charged with the hack itself. Morgan, who previously dubbed herself the “Crocodile of Wall Street,” also once worked as a Forbes contributor.
Interviews with 18 people who knew the couple suggest that Morgan, young woman from a rural town in northern California, was desperate to make herself a Silicon Valley thought leader, according to a March 2022 Forbes profile. After living abroad for a time, she returned to her home state, and tried to settle in the Bay Area, where she connected with a small startup that had been selected for an incubator competition. There, in 2013, she first met the man that would eventually become her husband, Lichtenstein.
However, three years later, Lichtenstein suddenly and mysteriously left the company that he co-founded, MixRank, around the same time that Bitfinex was hacked.
Since their 2022 arrest, Morgan has been under house arrest, while Lichtenstein has remained in custody in Washington, DC. Since their indictment, routine procedural court hearings have been postponed several times.
Morgan’s once-prolific social media accounts have largely been quiet since her arrest and prosecution.
However, back in September 2022 she tweeted that she was “Looking for remote B2B growth /marketing /sales /copywriting /demand gen work,” adding that she wanted “Serious opportunities with B2B (tech) companies only. Thanks!”
