Heather Morgan, Accused of Laundering Bitcoin, Is Out on Bail

The awkward tech couple accused of making an attempt to launder billions of {dollars} in stolen Bitcoin has been briefly cut up up. Jailed since their early February arrest, the husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, stays behind bars, whereas his spouse, 31-year-old Heather Morgan, has been granted bail by a Washington D.C. choose, the Washington Post reports.

On Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell dubbed the proof in opposition to the couple to be “so weighty as to be overwhelming,” however in the end allowed Morgan to put up a bail of $3 million—a bond bundle that included her mother and father’ home. Lichtenstein’s provide of $5 million, in the meantime, was rejected, and he was ordered to stay in a Washington D.C. jail as the 2 await trial for costs of cash laundering and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. If the couple are convicted on these counts, they may resist 25 years in jail.

In case you’ve missed it, the duo are accused of making an attempt to launder a large fortune—roughly $4.5 billion in cryptocurrency—that was beforehand stolen from the change Bitfinex throughout a 2016 hacking incident. The case has garnered widespread consideration as a result of goofy personalities of the couple, evident through their open and prolific social media exercise. Morgan, specifically, has attracted consideration attributable to her weird hip hop side-career, which she perpetrated beneath the rap moniker “Razzlekahn.” Predictably, a docu-series of the couple’s story has already been ordered by Netflix.

Court paperwork filed by prosecutors within the case seek advice from the couple as “sophisticated cyber criminals and money launderers who present a serious risk of flight” and lay out a case in opposition to granting the couple bail, pointing to their abroad ties:

“Lichtenstein is a dual Russian and U.S. citizen who has an active Russian passport; law enforcement seized Lichtenstein’s U.S. and Russian passports during the January 5, 2022 search warrant. Lichtenstein renewed his Russian passport in 2019. Both Defendants traveled frequently prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and travel records indicate they had been to Ukraine as recently as September 2019,” the courtroom filings notice.

Other paperwork present further, fascinating particulars. The Wall Street Journal reports that, in a latest detention memo, prosecutors apparently highlighted the lyrics to considered one of Morgan’s many rap songs as a sign of her hacking talents. “Spear phish your password/all your funds transferred” she raps, in an obvious reference to “the hacking technique of spear phishing to gain access to a user’s account password, and then transferring all of the user’s funds out of the account,” because the legal professionals put it.

Previous reporting has already noted that the couple apparently had a ton of shady stuff inside their residence—the form of stuff that will lead you to consider they have been… in all probability as much as one thing shady. This included a ziplock bag labelled “burner phones” which, after all, contained burner telephones. Prosecutors have additionally mentioned that Lichtenstein’s workplace contained “hollowed out” books—the sort {that a} spy or a comic book guide villain may need—although it’s not completely clear what they have been used for. The duo additionally had Russian financial institution accounts, and had beforehand traveled to Ukraine in 2019 to acquire faux id paperwork, experiences have famous.

There’s nonetheless lots we don’t find out about this case—like, as an illustration, the place a bunch of the cash is. Prosecutors have beforehand famous that some $328 million in cryptocurrency continues to be unaccounted for and that it’s not clear the place it is perhaps.