Bitfinex heist accomplice Heather Morgan asks judge to avoid jail time

Heather Morgan, aka rapper Razzlekhan, pleads to avoid more prison time ahead of sentencing. “Ms. Morgan has proven herself worthy of a second chance, and we respectfully ask this court to give her that opportunity and sentence her to time served,” her lawyers said in a filing with the federal court in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 31. Morgan endured “difficult conditions” during her week-long pretrial incarceration — she had to recover from surgery and contracted COVID-19 — and has “fully complied with the restrictive terms of her pretrial release” since her release in mid-February 2022, the lawyers added. Morgan pleaded guilty to money laundering and fraud in an August 2023 plea agreement, and faces a combined sentence of up to 10 years in prison for laundering 120,000 BTC (currently worth about $8.2 billion) stolen from Bitfinex for her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein. (Cointelegraph) Previous news, U.S. prosecutors suggested to the judge that Ilya Lichtenstein, the mastermind of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency theft, should be sentenced to five years in prison, and Lichtenstein, who pleaded guilty last year, should serve more time than his wife and accomplice Heather Morgan. Prosecutors did not ask for the maximum sentence for Lichtenstein, considering his cooperation in other criminal cases. Earlier this year, he testified in the Bitcoin Fog mixing service money laundering case prosecuted by the government. The two will be sentenced in November. In addition, U.S. prosecutors asked for an 18-month prison sentence for Heather Morgan.