A hacker has been sentenced to five years in prison in the United States for laundering the proceeds of one of the biggest cryptocurrency heists on record.
Ilya Lichtenstein pleaded guilty last year to hacking cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016 and stealing nearly 20,000 bitcoins.
He laundered the stolen cryptocurrency with the help of his wife Heather Morgan, who used the alias Razzlekhan to promote his hip hop music.
At the time of the theft, bitcoin was worth around $70 million (£55.3 million), but its value had reached more than $4.5 billion by the time of their arrest.
The $3.6 billion in assets recovered in the case represented the largest financial seizure in DOJ history, Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco said at the time.
“It's important to send the message that you can't commit these crimes with impunity and that they have consequences,” District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said.
Lichtenstein, who has been imprisoned since his arrest in February 2022, has expressed remorse for his actions.
He also said he hoped to apply his skills to combat cybercrime after serving his sentence.
Morgan also pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. She is scheduled to be sentenced on November 18.
According to court documents, Lichtenstein used advanced hacking tools and techniques to hack Bitfinex.
Following the hack, he sought Morgan's help in laundering the stolen funds.
They “used numerous sophisticated money laundering techniques,” the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said in a statement.
The methods included using fictitious identities, transferring the funds to different cryptocurrencies and purchasing gold coins.
Lichtenstein, who was born in Russia but raised in the United States, would then meet couriers on family trips and bring the laundered money home, prosecutors said.
Morgan Razzlekhan's character went viral on social media when the affair broke.
Even as the couple tried to cover up the hack, she released dozens of video clips filled with expletives and rap songs filmed in locations around New York.
In her lyrics, she calls herself a “nasty moneymaker” and a “Wall Street crocodile.”
In articles published in Forbes magazine, Morgan also claimed to be a successful technology businesswoman, calling herself an “economist, serial entrepreneur, software investor, and rapper.”
