Posted on 08/16/2022 8:46:41 AM PDT by dennisw
At the height of the pandemic in 2020, when she wasn’t teaching herself Russian, creating Salvador Dali-inspired art or recording rap songs about the excesses of Wall Street, Heather Morgan was very concerned about cybersecurity.
“Cybercriminals and fraudsters are taking advantage of this unexpected disruption, leading to a spike in scams and cybercrimes,” Morgan, an “entrepreneur,” wrote in a June 2020 column for Forbes. She added that she was particularly concerned about elderly victims being vulnerable to online scams.
“People are not always as they appear online,” she wrote.
Oh, the irony.
Morgan, 31, and her Russian-born husband, Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein, 34, now stand charged by the Department of Justice with trying to launder an astounding $4.5 billion in cryptocurrency. And the self-described “crocodile of Wall Street” is the gold-bomber-jacket-wearing poster child for cybercrime.
Morgan and Lichtenstein were arrested at their high-rise Wall Street apartment Tuesday for allegedly attempting to launder bitcoins that had been stolen from Hong Kong’s Bitfinex, one of the world’s largest virtual cryptocurrency exchanges, in 2016. It’s not clear if the couple was involved in the initial hacking that led to the bitcoin theft.
The stolen cryptocurrency was allegedly transferred to a digital wallet controlled by Lichtenstein, who describes himself as a “technology entrepreneur, coder and investor” on his LinkedIn account. Morgan described herself variously as a “serial entrepreneur” and an “irreverent comedic rapper,” who goes by the moniker Razzlekhan.
By her own account, she is “basically a mix of Hunter S. Thompson and Diane Arbus with a sprinkle of Tom Green.”
The Razzlekhan website boasts that Morgan is “More fearless and more shameless than ever before, she’s taking on everyone from big software companies to health care to finance bros.” She’s also seen rapping on Wall Street while wearing dark glasses and a leopard-print scarf.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Bloomberg has more detailed coverage on this bitcoin heist>>>
Another aspiring rapper bites the dust. So tragic.
I got involved with crypto in 2014. As I became aware of various crimes involving crypto, I came to expect that in the long run the vast majority of the criminals would be unable to maintain their anonymity. Here’s another case in point.
Good. Glad the freaks got busted.
Both seem bright enough that they should’ve been living in a non-extradition country. With that kind of money...local officials could’ve been paid off. The standard of living might’ve been lower than NYC...but it beats a prison cell.
A wimp and his pimp
If bitcoin is so secure how is it that it is so easily stolen? And also how is it that the thieves are so easily caught? I want absolutely no part of virtual currency. It’s another scheme where the first ones in make all the money.
> If bitcoin is so secure how is it that it is so easily stolen?
The frauds are usually through some secondary instrument, exchange, holding institution, etc. BitCoin is secure as long as you keep it private. However to speed up transactions a number of “exchange” and “wallet” entities were set up. The exchanges facilitate liquidity and distribute the risk of convenience. The “wallets” permit online exchange and credit convenience with some loss of privacy and security. Almost all the fraud is through insiders. The people who operated these convenience operations apparently have a predilection for being naughty.
> And also how is it that the thieves are so easily caught?
Bitcoin is not designed to be anonymous. A spend is traceable. Theft is uncovered when someone tries to spend stolen BitCoin. Stolen and seized Bitcoin can be tracked through the distributed ledger as it is spent.
From your link of 18 Feb 2022:
“It’s unclear what Bitfinex users who lost assets in the hack will get back. Bitfinex said in a statement that it will “follow appropriate legal processes to establish our rights to a return of the stolen Bitcoin.”
By the time the feds untangle this mess, bitcoin may well be near ZERO.
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