The couple who stole $4.000 billion in Bitcoin: the Bonnie and Clyde of crypto

By
Jennifer Maldonado
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Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan are Bonnie and Clyde of 21st-century cryptoThis couple has been the protagonist of one of the largest known hacks of a cryptocurrency exchange platform.

It happened in August 2016, when they violated the security protocols of the Bitfinex exchange, a platform that suffered a massive hack. Ilya and Heather stole approximately 119,754 Bitcoins of the Bitfinex exchange. At the time of the hack, they represented just over $66 million. Today, end of March 2025, that same amount of tokens would be equivalent to almost 100.000 million dollars.

How they did it?

Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morga, the young New York couple, will be recognized for being the first to massively hack a cryptocurrency exchange platform: Bitfinex. Although this was in 2016, It remains one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in history. of decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain.

This case, along with the 2018 Coincheck hack, when still unknown attackers stole little Over $530 million in XEM tokens from the NEM blockchain, is one of the greatest of its kind. Only that Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan were indeed captured. and the first ones have not yet been identified.

ButHow did modern Bonnie and Clyde manage to steal almost 120 BTC? According to the investigations, which took about 4 years, The couple used a series of very sophisticated methods to hack Bitfinex and then hide and launder the stolen funds, making them difficult to trace.

Blockchain and hacking experts from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) who worked on the case with the FBI They identified that the cyber attackers used mixing or tumbling techniques to achieve its goal by breaking down BTC transactions into many small transactions with high levels of anonymity.

With this method made the almost 120.000 BTC go through and to multiple wallets, creating a complex web of DeFi transfers that were difficult to trace or track. This complicated the tracking of funds and helped disguise their illicit origins from the DOJ and FBI.

In addition, for the entire process They used platforms decentralized exchanges and markets from the dark web or the deep internetAll of this is done to convert the stolen cryptocurrencies into other digital currencies or even fiat currency like the dollar and the euro.

Lichtenstein and Morgan also created false identitiesand exchange platforms under fictitious names to move funds back and forth. In some cases, acquired tangible assets such as gift cards in BTC or real estate with laundered financial resources.

Through these seemingly legal transactions, They were able to integrate the stolen money into the legal economy and, in this way, evade tracking by authorities for several years. But, finally, they were tracked down and caught.

To prison 6 years later

The couple, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, lived a relatively normal life in New York , the entrepreneurial businessmenThis was before and after the hack. The young man was a businessman and had started a technology consulting firm, and the young woman, despite running a cybersecurity company, considered herself an artist, writer, and rapper.

In fact, Neither of them made the slightest effort to hide and they stood out in the public eye by self-proclaiming themselves as successful. He boasted of being a technological genius, and she declared in a public interview published by Forbes magazine that she was "economist, serial entrepreneur, software investor and rapper whose stage name was Razzlekhan".

After the arrest, Authorities seized nearly $3.600 billion in assets that were considered "recovered" for legal purposes and for trial arguments. The truth is that this case represents the largest financial seizure made by the Department of Justice in the story and as reported by Lisa Monaco, who was the deputy attorney general at the time of the arrest.

During the trial, presided over by District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, she emphasized the importance of making it clear that these crimes cannot be committed with impunity and that they always carry consequences, no matter how clever or technologically savvy the attackers are.

Sentence

Upon being captured and taken to a preliminary hearing to establish the grounds for a trial, Lichtenstein confessed to being responsible for the hacking to the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016.

For their actions received a five-year prison sentenceThis was determined in the trial of the November 14th 2023, when the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, with the Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly At the front, he handed down the sentence after the defendant pleaded guilty. The charge was conspiracy to commit money laundering.

For this crime and according to the federal laws of the United States, these actions He could have been sentenced to up to 20 years.However, prosecutors recommended a lighter sentence due to the Lichtenstein's absence of a criminal record and what the Columbia Prosecutor's Office described as "substantial assistance" or help to clarify the facts that the young man provided in other investigations.

In the case of his wife Heather Morgan, the trial took place a year later: on November 18, 2024, when the artist known as Razzlekhan received an 18-month sentence of prison. The considerable difference in the sentence is due to the fact that, during the trial, the husband pleaded guilty to the acts, while the wife She was only charged with fraud conspiracy.

Lichtenstein is expected to get out of prison andin November 2029 and his wife Morgan will do so in mid-2026. 

What happened to Bitfinex and the scammed users?

El Bitfinex exchange admitted that the couple breached its security. Therefore, after the impact, it implemented several measures to both recover financially from the theft and strengthen its various layers of security and regain the trust of its users.

Despite the economic and public image impact, Bitfinex managed to stay operational and it is still one of the most important exchanges in the world, although the story of the 2016 hack will remain etched in its history.

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