Heather Morgan, one of the married duo sentenced for the Bitfinex hack, returned to social media last week after being released from prison, and the aspiring rapper known as “Razzlekhan” touted President Donald Trump’s aide on her early release.
But a White House official told CoinDesk that it had nothing to do with commuting his sentence.
That’s despite a video he posted from his bathtub over the weekend that said, “I want to congratulate Dad Trump for shortening my 18-month sentence,” which appeared to have spurred reports in online media that the president intervened.
She did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the discrepancy.
Morgan had been convicted and sentenced for her role in laundering the proceeds of the hack that was allegedly carried out by her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein. He stole nearly 120,000 bitcoins, worth approximately $13.8 billion at current valuations, although he was worth significantly less during the 2016 incident and his arrest in 2022. He is still serving his five-year sentence.
The couple was the subject of a documentary Netflix released last year called “The Greatest Heist of All Time.”
Upon his early release from prison in California, which would be consistent with an inmate maintaining good behavior, he launched a flurry of social media posts, including one about Trump’s notorious pardon of former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. She posted, “Guess it’s crypto pardon season,” further suggesting that she might have benefited from the president’s intervention in her sentencing.
That pardon, which followed Trump’s earlier pardon of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, drew objections Tuesday from Senate Democrats, including Elizabeth Warren, who wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, arguing that the law “signals to cryptocurrency executives and other white-collar criminals that they can commit crimes with impunity.”
At Morgan’s sentencing hearing in Washington nearly a year ago, she told the court she was “very remorseful and deeply regretted the decisions I made.” In a tearful statement, he admitted to using his “time and energy for harm instead of good, and I am ashamed of that.”
Now, Morgan hints at a return to her rapping career in a post pinned to social media site X, “Who’s ready for Razzlekhan’s NEW music?”
Read more: Bitfinex hacker launderer Heather ‘Razzlekhan’ Morgan sentenced to 18 months in prison
