The woman involved in the theft at Bitfinex- The Cryptonomist

Heather Morgan, also known by the pseudonym Razzlekhan, has denied that she is currently involved in any cryptocurrency or NFT-related projects. 

I am not involved in any crypto project. Any crypto or NFT project bearing my name or likeness is a scam that I do not endorse.

— Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan (@HeatherReyhan) August 23, 2022

Rather, she warns that any crypto project using her name is a scam. 

The billion-dollar theft from Bitfinex

Morgan is known to have been arrested some time ago for being accused of playing a role in the 2016 mega heist of 119,754 BTC from the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. 

She was arrested along with her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, in February this year, and had not been heard from on Twitter since. A few days ago she posted her first tweet since her arrest to say that anyone who is exploiting her name in the cryptocurrency environment is doing so without her permission. 

Together with her husband, she is accused by the FBI of laundering the stolen funds in 2016 from Bitfinex. To do so, they used more than 2,000 transactions by which they transferred the stolen BTC from wallets to financial accounts.  

According to the FBI, they allegedly used fake identities to register online accounts, used software to automate transactions, and to avoid being tracked, would distribute them across multiple dark web exchanges sometimes changing them to other assets. 

In this way, they moved more than 25,000 BTC over the years, while the other 94,000 were later recovered and seized by U.S. authorities in February when in total they were worth more than $4.5 billion. 

After being arrested in February, Heather Morgan was later released by a federal judge after posting a million-dollar bail. A trial date has yet to be set. 

Razzlekhan’s story

The pseudonym “Razzlekhan” comes from the fact that she was also a New York street rapper, so much so that just days before her arrest she shared one of her singles on Spotify, titled “Bleeding Buckets.”

She is also known to have previously been a columnist for Forbes, for which she wrote about technology, security, and financial fraud. 

With the statement a few days ago, her career in the cryptocurrency world also seems to have ended, not least because she faces several years in prison. 

It should, finally, be remembered that the Bitfinex exchange not only survived that colossal theft but also eventually managed to completely settle the matter with its numerous creditors.