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Google PlayAn entrepreneur who doubles as a rapper is being charged along with her husband for allegedly laundering billions following a cryptocurrency exchange breach.
Heather Rhiannon Morgan, 31, and Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein, 34, were arrested in NYC on Tuesday on accusations of laundering $4.5 billion following a 2016 breach. They allegedly helped “wash” 119,754 Bitcoins before reportedly transferring them to Lichtenstein’s digital wallet, according to the Justice Department. They now face accusations of money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the United States
“Today’s arrests, and the department’s largest financial seizure ever, show that cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco shared, per the Daily Beast. “In a futile effort to maintain digital anonymity, the defendants laundered stolen funds through a labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions. Thanks to the meticulous work of law enforcement, the department once again showed how it can and will follow the money, no matter what form it takes.”
Morgan is the founder of SalesFork, which has described itself as “the first company to specialize in cold email copywriting,” and she has encouraged execs to “try rapping,” penning a 2019 Forbes piece titled “Got Burnout? This Tech CEO Thinks You Should Try Rapping.” In her work as Razzlekhan, shown in the above video, she’s dedicated her music to “all weirdos, entrepreneurs, hackers, misfits, and all the unique people who pursue what they want.” Morgan and Lichtenstein face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors share that the pair—who got engaged back in 2019—“employed numerous sophisticated laundering techniques,” such as using fake identities to set up accounts, as well as computer programs to “automate transactions,” and deposited the “stolen funds into accounts at a variety of virtual currency exchanges and darknet markets” before “withdrawing the funds, which obfuscates the trail of the transaction history by breaking up the fund flow.”
“Criminals always leave tracks, and today’s case is a reminder that the FBI has the tools to follow the digital trail, wherever it may lead,” FBI Deputy Director Paul M. Abbate said.
