They called themselves Dutch and Razzlekhan, but the internet chose to rebrand them as “the Bonnies and Clydes” of the 2020s following their arrest linked to a spectacular cryptocurrency theft.
Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife Heather Morgan, 31, were arrested Tuesday morning in New York and a judge ordered their continued detention overnight until a next hearing at the end of the week.
Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan were arrested in New York and a judge ordered them to remain in custody until a further hearing
American justice suspects them of receiving and laundering bitcoins stolen from the virtual trading platform Bitfinex in 2016. Just before arresting them, investigators recovered 94,000 bitcoins estimated at 3.6 billion dollars, a record seizure.
According to prosecutors, this hoard was on a virtual wallet controlled by Ilya Lichtenstein.
The rest of the loot was laundered through a series of complex transactions, involving computer programs, conversion into other virtual currencies and bank accounts opened under false identities, the indictment states.
More than the couple’s financial and technological prowess, social networks were abuzz on Wednesday for the music videos of rapper Heather Morgan, aka Razzlekhan.
The young woman’s YouTube channel is no longer accessible, but excerpts, widely shared, remain visible online. “I’m the fucking crocodile of Wall Street”, she sings in a high-pitched voice, parodying, to the point of absurdity, the clichés of the style (lascivious dance, gold jacket…).
In a column published in 2019 by Forbes magazine – for which she wrote for several years – she explains that she suffered in her youth from a speech problem and was made fun of for her tone of voice, but to be thrown into rap following a professional “burn-out”.
In other testimonies online, she evokes stages of her life, the veracity of which is difficult to verify.
An article thus mentions a flight from Brazil following the discovery of the infidelity of a husband married very young. Others cite the creation, at age 23, of a company specializing in “cold” emails, a commercial prospecting technique which, according to her, has enriched her.
But her Facebook account paints the picture of a grown-up teenager, with posts regarding her cat and her best friends, selfies of grimaces and inspired reflections like “We’re all fucking imposters, so don’t be too harsh with yourselves”.
In the same mix of genres, her husband Ilya Lichtenstein, a Russian-American nicknamed “Dutch”, presents himself on social networks as a “tech entrepreneur, coder and investor”, and recounts having rented giant screens on Times Square to propose to her.
“I knew I had to do something memorable that shows how much I love and appreciate the real Heather, not just the cantankerous entrepreneur but also the ultra-weird designer”, explains the young man, who displays a geeky style.
Dutch and Razzlekhan face 25 years in prison for their alleged cybercrime
Hardly understandable for the uninitiated, his tweets talk regarding virtual finance or NFT (certificates of authenticity associated with virtual objects). A November post criticizes an article on cryptocurrencies that does not provide advice on securing transactions.
In the same vein, his wife shared in 2020 with Forbes readers her “expert advice to protect a company from cybercriminals”.
Today, Dutch and Razzlekhan face 25 years in prison for their alleged cybercrime.
