Feds Reveal Hipster Crypto Couple's Hilarious Attempt to Cover Their Tracks

Source: Daily Beast

Feds Reveal Hipster Crypto Couple’s Hilarious Attempt to Cover Their Tracks

In one instance, the flamboyant pair tossed a computer down a garbage chute in a desperate bid to stymie investigators.

Justin Rohrlich
Reporter
Updated Aug. 07, 2023 5:45PM EDT Published Aug. 07, 2023 4:27PM EDT

Nearly four months before Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan were arrested for their role in the largest crypto heist in history, they were inadvertently tipped off that they were the targets of a criminal probe, leading the flamboyant pair to toss a computer down a garbage chute in a desperate bid to stymie investigators.

That’s according to plea documents unsealed Monday, which say an unnamed financial services provider told Lichtenstein in November 2021 that the feds had subpoenaed records for an account in his name. The company had been too slow in processing an extension of a non-disclosure order issued by a judge, and mistakenly sent out a notice informing the 35-year-old hacker of the government’s request.

“Upon receipt of the notice, Lichtenstein and Morgan took steps to further conceal their activities,” reads a statement of offense attached to Lichtenstein’s plea agreement. “For example, Lichtenstein deleted data from devices in the United States and abroad, and Lichtenstein and Morgan threw a computing device down a garbage chute, when said computing device contained relevant, inculpatory evidence related to this criminal scheme.”

Lichtenstein and Morgan were arrested in February 2021 and pleaded guilty last Thursday to conspiracy to commit money laundering over the 2016 hack of Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. While Lichtenstein wasn’t charged with the $4.5 billion Bitcoin theft itself, his plea deal says he admitted to illegally penetrating Bitfinex’s servers and siphoning out the purloined funds. (Morgan’s plea docs had not yet been made public at the time of publication.) The government says it has managed to claw back most of the money.

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Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/hipster-crypto-couple-ilya-lichtenstein-heather-morgan-made-hilarious-attempt-to-cover-their-tracks