Briefly
- Bitfinex hacker Ilya Lichtenstein has been launched from jail years early and is now on house confinement.
- Lichtenstein and his just lately freed spouse Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan each credited President Trump with their early releases.
- Trump admin officers confirmed the discharge of Lichtenstein, however didn’t say whether or not the White Home intervened.
Ilya Lichtenstein, who orchestrated the theft of over $11 billion price of Bitcoin from crypto change Bitfinex in 2016, is out of jail years forward of schedule—and credit President Donald Trump with the early launch.
Months prior, Lichtenstein’s spouse and convicted co-conspirator, Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan, was additionally launched early from jail. Morgan equally thanked Trump for her early launch.
A Trump administration official confirmed to Decrypt on Monday that Lichtenstein is in actual fact out of jail.
“This particular person has served vital time on his sentence and is at the moment on house confinement per statute and Bureau of Prisons insurance policies,” the official mentioned.
The official didn’t reply to additional inquiries concerning whether or not the White Home performed any function in securing Lichtenstein’s early launch.
The convicted cash launderer was sentenced in November 2024 to 5 years in jail for stealing over 119,000 BTC from Bitfinex. Lichtenstein managed to acquire the funds by exploiting a vulnerability within the crypto change’s safety infrastructure, along with his spouse convicted for serving to to launder the stolen funds.
The stolen Bitcoin, valued at $71 million on the time, is now price some $11.2 billion. The funds had been finally recovered by the U.S. authorities.
Upon his launch on New Yr’s Day, Lichtenstein credited “President Trump’s First Step Act” along with his early launch from federal jail.
“To the supporters, thanks for every little thing,” Lichtenstein mentioned. “To the haters, I sit up for proving you mistaken.”
In 2018, President Trump signed the First Step Act, a bipartisan jail reform invoice that, amongst different issues, provided new pathways for sure inmates to be “pre-released” into house confinement. Sure aged and terminally in poor health inmates are permitted to serve the rest of their sentences at house, and inmates also can earn as much as 54 days a 12 months of “good time credit score” that may accumulate in the direction of early pre-release.
It isn’t clear whether or not Lichtenstein certified as aged or terminally in poor health, or had accrued adequate good time credit score to be pre-released barely a 12 months after receiving his sentence. The Bureau of Prisons didn’t instantly reply to Decrypt’s request for touch upon the matter.
Upon her personal launch from jail in October, Lichtenstein’s spouse, the rapper Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan, thanked President Trump for the early exit—however made no point out of the First Step Act.
“I need to give a shoutout to Papa Trump for making my 18-month sentence shorter,” Morgan mentioned from her bathtub. “So razzle-fucking-dazzle.”
On the time, a White Home official instructed Decrypt that Morgan’s early launch was “not as a consequence of a commutation from the president.”
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