Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein were captured on Tuesday in the United States, where they are associated with having attempted to launder billions of dollars in bitcoins. Yet, it is the profile of this couple, named the “Bonnie and Clyde” of cybercrime, that has fundamentally grabbed the media’s eye.
In June 2020, she authored an essay for Forbes, placed between two rap tracks, to provide “tips to avoid being victims” of cyberthieves on the Internet.Two years later, Morgan Heather, who was detained on Tuesday, February 8 in the United States, and her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, are accused by the US Department of Justice of attempting to launder more than 3.6 billion dollars in stolen bitcoins.
As a result, the American experts congratulated themselves on their largest bitcoin catch. It closes a portion of Bitfinex, a cryptographic money exchange stage that was robbed in 2016.
At that moment, cybercriminals figured out how to steal 119,754 bitcoins, worth $71 million at the time of the theft. After five years, the value of this theft has incredibly increased as the price of the well-known currency has risen to multiple billions of dollars.
This has made Morgan Heather and Ilya Lichtenstein, who have been blamed only for unlawful tax evasion and not for being the source of the heist, maybe the most lavish pair in history. At the very least, perhaps. Of the almost 120,000 bitcoins that were taken in 2016, the FBI just seized 94,000, or $3.6 billion, from the virtual wallets of the two lovebirds.
Furthermore, despite their efforts to disguise their tracks using “an extensive range of cutting-edge technologies,” the pair appear to have only washed a small percentage of that amount-just shy of $1 billion-according to the FBI in the statement, which was issued on Wednesday, February 10. “This is proof that bitcoin isn’t the commonly described utopia for laundering illegal funds,” said Matt Levine, a former Goldman Sachs investor turned financial columnist for the American business channel Bloomberg.
Nonetheless, Morgan Heather and Ilya Lichtenstein’s “trying to take advantage of” stands out enough to be recognized, despite the fact that they don’t fit the typical profile of cybercrime geniuses. They have nothing to do with Russian or Chinese programmers saturating the internet with ransomware and other heinous malware.
The couple were quickly dubbed the “Bonnie and Clyde” of cybercrime. This is a manner of romanticizing the situation, according to Morgan Heather’s opulent personality. This Forbes consultant for over three years describes herself on Twitter as a “sequential businessperson, periodic financial supporter, surrealist crafter, and beautician provoked by her synesthesia [a neurological ailment that allows you to associate sounds with colors].”
This American with Russian ancestry has worked at at least two computer firms where Morgan Heather was employed. He is a much more traditional entrepreneur than his wife. He is most known for founding MixRank, an online marketing start-up that has garnered funding from some of Silicon Valley’s most renowned investors, including billionaire Mark Cuban. Morgan Heather, in her “Silicon Valley Parody Rap” music video, names Mark Cuban as one of her targets. ..
Bonnie and Clyde, the cybercrime pair, Bonnie and Clyde were married in November 2021, more than four years after they began laundering billions from the Bitfinex robbery. According to the Wall Street Journal, the ceremony was “quite modest,” according to friends.
Bonnie and Clyde, the cybercrime pair, were married in November 2021, more than four years after they began laundering billions from the Bitfinex robbery. According to the Wall Street Journal, the ceremony was “quite modest,” according to friends. The FBI also adds in its indictment that the money from the laundering was not used to lavish on them, but the pair used it to buy “gift cards” at the American grocery store Walmart, to pay for Uber rides, and even to make purchases at the Playstation video game console’s online shop.
According to the Wall Street Journal, they hoped to buy a huge apartment in New York shortly. Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein may end up in a tiny jail instead, as they face up to 20 years in a federal prison.
