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Cryptocurrencies are digital tokens. The "crypto" in cryptocurrencies refers to the cryptographic techniques that allow for creating and processing digital currencies. Cryptocurrencies are intended for payments, transmitting value (akin to digital money) across a decentralized network of users. Cryptocurrencies have no legislated or intrinsic value; they are simply worth what people are willing to pay for them in the market. Some examples, although not exhaustive, of cryptocurrencies include the following:

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Cryptocurrency - Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

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Cryptocurrencies are digital tokens. The “crypto” in cryptocurrencies refers to the cryptographic techniques that allow for creating and processing digital currencies. Cryptocurrencies are intended for payments, transmitting value (akin to digital money) across a decentralized network of users. Cryptocurrencies have no legislated or intrinsic value; they are simply worth what people are willing to pay for them in the market. Some examples, although not exhaustive, of cryptocurrencies include the following:

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Key aspects of identity theft:

Unauthorized use of personal information:

Identity thieves obtain and use another person's personal data for malicious purposes, like opening accounts, making purchases, or obtaining loans in the victim's name.

Financial damage:

Identity theft can lead to financial losses for the victim, such as unauthorized charges, damaged credit reports, and difficulty getting loans or credit.

Non-financial consequences:

Identity theft can also lead to non-financial consequences, such as being wrongfully arrested, having incorrect information added to public records, or facing legal issues due to fraudulent activities.

Various forms of identity theft:

Identity thieves can use stolen information to open new accounts, take over existing accounts, make fraudulent purchases, or commit other crimes.

Protecting yourself:

It's important to take steps to protect yourself from identity theft, such as being aware of potential risks, regularly monitoring your credit reports, and using strong passwords.

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Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE)

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How crypto is enabling terror and money laundering 

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How crypto is enabling terror and money laundering 

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FRANCE 24 explores the increasing use of cryptocurrencies in illicit activities. It highlights how digital currencies, due to their decentralized and pseudonymous nature, are increasingly being utilized for money laundering and financing terrorism.​

A key example discussed is the case of Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, whose activities have drawn attention to the vulnerabilities in the crypto ecosystem that can be exploited for criminal purposes. The video also features insights from Renato Mariotti, a former prosecutor in the U.S. Justice Department’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Section, who discusses the challenges law enforcement faces in regulating and monitoring cryptocurrency transactions

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Crime & Crypto: How cryptocurrencies enable money laundering & terror funding • FRANCE 24 English

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The Bitfinex hack of 2016 is summarized in this source. It entails the various methods in which the hackers acquired the funds, the tools used such as false identities and a method of exchanging cryptocurrency called "chain hopping". It then goes in the sentencing of the couple and who was in charge of the investigation.

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Bitfinex Hacker Sentenced in Money Laundering Conspiracy Involving Billions in Stolen Cryptocurrency

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Ilya Lichtenstein was sentenced today to five years in prison for his involvement in a money laundering conspiracy arising from the hack and theft of approximately 120,000 bitcoin from Bitfinex, a global cryptocurrency exchange.

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Ransomware is when a malicious actor is utilizing malware to gain access to and hold information hostage for some sort of financial gain. Ransomware uses asymmetric encryption methods to decrypt personal files and and allow them to be sent back to the malicious actor easier.

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Learn about ransomware, how it operates, and effective strategies to prevent attacks. Stay protected with insights from Trellix

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Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde: Where Are They Now After The Biggest Heist Ever?

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In this source some of the key aspects looks into how the FBI and lead investigators gain access to the couple apartment by using a fake "child exploitation" excuse. The sources then goes into the inner workings of the Bitfinex hack, how it occured, and the type of crimes used through these hacks. The first initial impression of this hack was thought to be from a large terrorist organizations, criminal organizations, or a nation such as China or Russia. Though, investigators found out that it was a tech savvy couple in NYC that stole around 71 millions USD in Bitcoin in 2016. The source then looks into Heather Morgans alter ego "RazzleKhan" and how this identity allowed her to promote her life online. Finally, explaining the night of the couples arrest was the final information talked about in this text

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IT WAS AROUND 3 A.M. the first time they arrived. An unmarked, nondescript government-issued vehicle pulled up to the towering brown brick and blue glass building in downtown Manhattan known simply by its address: 75 Wall Street. The city that never sleeps was in that rare moment when the ostinato of car horns and rattling subway cars had been replaced by a deep, albeit brief, slumber. The agents stepped out of their vehicle and walked through the revolving doors of the 42-story building, crossing the shiny white oak floors of the lobby to reach the doorman on duty that night. It was 2021, in the midst of the second wave of the COVID pandemic, and the bottom 18 floors of "75," which had originally opened as the Andaz Hotel, had shuttered because of the virus. Seeing anyone at this hour was rare for the doorman, but seeing a group of federal agents was an utter anomaly.

"We're picking up signals that someone in this building is trafficking child pornography," one of the agents said to the doorman. " We need to go up to the roof to see if we can track where the signal is coming from." The doorman, though slightly taken aback, obliged and pointed the way to the elevators.

As the agents stepped in one of the building's four elevators, the doorman wondered which resident of the 346-unit building, where condos can cost as much as $7 million, could be trafficking child porn. After a while, the agents came back to the lobby and left the building.

A couple of weeks went by and the feds returned. And again a few weeks after that. At one point, the night doorman offered them a little investigative advice. "You sure you're in the right building?" he said. "Seems more like something you'd find at 95 Wall Street?" Indeed, 95 was far more malefic than 75. Over that same summer of 2021, the shiny glass building across the street had been the site of a series of drug busts by the NYPD; reviews of the building online had called it a haven for coke dealers, gangsters, and all-night Airbnb parties. Most recently, a high-end escort had been killed there, stuffed into a 55-gallon drum and wheeled out the back door before being dumped in New Jersey.

"Nope," the agents said. "Definitely this building." And off they went to the roof again. Then, one evening, the pattern changed. The agents showed an interest in one specific floor. The signal they were after, it seemed, was getting stronger.

In reality, the agents were not at 75 because of child pornography. The crime they tracked there had originally taken place in Hong Kong in the summer of 2016, when someone had found a flaw in the code of the Bitfinex crypto exchange and stolen 119,754 Bitcoin, worth around $72 million at the time. Its value had since grown 70-fold and was now in the billions. After a half decade tracking and tracing, climbing on roofs and skulking through the dead of night, the feds had finally-finally!-found the people who had somehow gotten their hands on that stolen Bitcoin. A married couple in their early 30s, with a wild online presence and a Bengal cat named Clarissa (who had her own Instagram account). The husband, Ilya "Dutch" Lichtenstein, a Russian-born emigre, was an investor and part-time mentalist magician. His wife, Heather "Razzlekhan" Morgan, who was from the U.S., was an entrepreneur, journalist, and rapper.

That was just the beginning, as I discovered in more than 50 interviews with friends and former colleagues of the couple, investigators close to the case, and employees and residents of 75 Wall Street. As the feds were about to find out, this would prove to be one of the strangest cases in the ever-evolving world of crypto crime-and the first clue of just how bizarre this case would become was sitting right there on the couple's social media accounts.

"RAZZLE, DAZZLE, BITCHEZ!"

AH, BITCOIN, a new era of money. That invention-slash-ideology that promised to usher in an era of glittering, sparkling, frolicking financial technotopia. Our generation's fiscal Woodstock! And by God, did the internet need it. Back at the turn of the aughts, when this bizarre Bitcoin thing was slowly being squeezed from the birth canals of the web's most arcane forums, financial anonymity simply didn't exist online. You bought something digitally, and a database somewhere was tattooed with every microscopic detail about you.

Bitcoin, which made its hushed debut in 2009, promised to change that. It went on to upend the global financial landscape in ways that no one could have ever believed possible (anyone who tells you they foresaw the world we live in today is either a liar or a Bitcoin billionaire). Crypto now makes up $3 trillion in wealth, and the world's largest financial institutions, including Chase and the Bank of England, cite digital currencies as the future of finance, although a major collapse in value this year has even some true believers wondering if that prediction will pan out.

The rise of cryptocurrencies also brought with it a new era of crime unlike anything we've ever seen before. Sites soon popped up on the dark web that made it easy to buy drugs, guns, murder, fake diplomas, ricin, body parts, bombs, rocket launchers, and even uranium, all using Bitcoin. And a few years later, because of that promise of financial anonymity, came the rise of a relatively obscure crime called the ransomware attack, where a company's or person's computer system is taken hostage and the only way to unlock it is by paying a fee in-you guessed it-crypto. While this kind of computer hijacking dates to the early '90s, payment was often made by cash or credit card, and as such, was few and far between. Last year, the FBI released a report saying there are now 4,000 ransomware attacks every day (compared to seven bank robberies a day), and that online perpetrators stole $14 billion in Bitcoin in 2021 alone (traditional bank robbers, by comparison, only got away with a couple hundred million). Because of the ease of crypto, hospitals are now taken hostage and held at financial gunpoint. Banks and hedge funds grind to a halt. Even a meatpacking plant was recently forced to pay $11 million in Bitcoin to get access to its beef patties, chicken cutlets, and pork sausages.

Then there are the other crimes, where new waves of hackers phish, spoof, rootkit, worm, cloak, and brute-force their way into stealing all sorts of digital assets, from NFTs to literally (and sometimes figuratively) making off with millions in digital gold.

It was as if Lichtenstein and Morgan HAD A STOLEN Ferrari and as they were TRYING TO HIDE IT in their garage, it turned into a sparkling diamond-encrusted jumbo jet with GOLDEN toilet seats.

Most of these hacks are pretty small in scale. Simple bad luck for whoever chose a shitty password or was fooled by a phishing scam. But the Bitfinex hack-the one that led the feds to 75 Wall Street-was big. Very big. Bitfinex was one of the top exchanges for buying and selling cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, and the hackers cleared out more than half its inventory-119,754 coins in all-in under four hours on the morning of August 2, 2016.

At the time of the theft, a single Bitcoin was worth about $600. Almost immediately afterward, cryptomania set in and the value of Bitcoin skyrocketed. The money simply wouldn't stop growing, a frightful problem for Lichtenstein and Morgan. At its vertiginous peak last year, a single Bitcoin had ballooned to $69,000, raising the price of the coins stolen in 2016 to an absurd $8.3 billion-and making the heist the biggest in U.S. history. (In typical crypto roller-coaster insanity, the value fell to a measly $2.5 billion after the great sell-off of 2022.) It was as if Lichtenstein and Morgan had a stolen Ferrari and as they were trying to hide it in their garage, it turned into a sparkling, diamond-encrusted jumbo jet with golden toilet seats and wheels made of Jubilee rubies. How the fuck were they supposed to hide that?

It's not just pimply teenagers in their mother's basement who are hacking and stealing crypto. These funds are also being stolen by criminal syndicates sponsored by rogue states like North Korea and Iran, and their funds are being used to buy illegal arms or even fund terror cells like ISIS and al-Qaida. To tackle this problem, a new industry has cropped up in Silicon Valley-companies like TRM Labs and Chainalysis, which both worked on the Bitfinex case-hired by international governments, corporations, and crypto exchanges to monitor every single transaction on the blockchain and then use sophisticated A.I. to figure out where the money began and where it wound up. In other words, that early utopian promise of guaranteed anonymity in crypto turned out to be just another dystopia.

Charging someone with the crime of the actual online hack is almost impossible because, unlike a traditional bank robbery, where someone is caught running out of the building with a suitcase full of cash or leaves fingerprints behind, once an online perpetrator has committed a crime, it's almost impossible to tie them to it. As with this case, the only way to do so is to catch them with the stolen money.

In the year after the Bitfinex hack, the feds didn't see any movement of the stolen Bitcoins. The money just sat there, growing on the blockchain. That was until early 2017, when software security companies noticed that someone was laundering some of that stolen crypto through a dark-net marketplace called AlphaBay, one of the world's largest sellers of fentanyl and heroin. Authorities watched as a "store" was created on the AlphaBay site, and then watched as that same store processed hundreds of "sales" before the store was quickly "closed" and the proceeds funneled into secret crypto wallets. The money was being laundered using sophisticated techniques called chain hopping and peel chains, where the money is sliced and diced and then put back together in order to make it less identifiable. A few months later, when the feds finally took AlphaBay down and arrested the site's founder in Thailand (he later died by suicide in a Thai jail), they were able to seize AlphaBay's servers, and investigators began piecing together clues that led them from the Bitfinex hack to 75 Wall Street.

"Often, with these hacks and ransomware cases, we track down the people responsible, if we can find them, and they turn out to be state-sponsored hackers from places like North Korea, Russia, or Iran, and there isn't really anything we can do-these countries are not handing these people over to us," said Ari Redbord, who formerly worked on terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury Department and is now head of legal and government affairs at TRM Labs. "What was truly shocking and different about the Bitfinex case-what made it unlike anything investigators had seen before-was that the people who had the keys to the wallet from the Bitfinex hack were right here, in a building in downtown Manhattan."

"I'M A MOTHERFUCKING BEAST, LIVING ON THE COAST THAT'S EAST, CROCODILE WAITIN FOR A FEAST... RAZZLE DAZZLE LIVIN IN A GLASS CASTLE."

ON AVERAGE, GUN-TOTING, bank-robbing, car-stealing Americans commit almost 10 million crimes a year. These crimes run the gamut from minor misdemeanors, like stealing a Snickers bar or someone pulling out their pecker in public, to major felonies, like murder and rape. And while the ages and net worths and zip codes of the people who commit these crimes are a lottery of mismatches, there is, actually, an anomalous type of criminal. Few crimes, it turns out, are ever committed by couples. There's perhaps a good reason for that: Imagine your spouse rolling over in bed and, amid a little postcoital pillow talk, suggesting you rob the local bank together, or kill the neighbor, or try to launder billions of dollars in stolen Bitcoin. Most mates in this situation would either try to talk their significant other out of the act or call the cops while googling "quickest divorce lawyer."

When couples do commit crimes together, perhaps because of the anomaly of it all, the American scandal-loving public slurps it up. Felonious lovebirds are given nicknames like the Ken and Barbie Killers, the Lethal Lovers, or the most famous crime-committing couple of all-who would surely be TikTok influencers if they were around today-Bonnie and Clyde.

So you can imagine the surprise the feds felt when they finally figured out that the signal speeding along the highways and byways of the internet that was tied to the Bitfinex hack, the same signal used desperately to try to launder this ever-growing money unnoticed, was tied to a couple who lived in downtown Manhattan. You can also imagine their shock when they looked at the couple's social media profiles and found something far from the empty void of some faceless North Korean computer syndicate. Nope-the couple with the keys to $5 billion in stolen crypto had more social media accounts than a TikTok mansion in the Hollywood Hills.

They were PUTTING TOGETHER a new life-new identities-a life that the feds would eventually allege was "PULLED FROM THE PAGES OF A SPY NOVEL."

Lichtenstein, who is five foot eight with short black tousled hair, an intense stare, and a soft Russian accent, had a Twitter account where he espoused thoughts about NFTs and crypto and occasionally retweeted Edward Snowden. He portrayed himself as a business guy, with big thoughts on tech and other topics, and on his Instagram and Facebook he posted pictures of his hikes alongside pictures of himself staring into the eyes of Clarissa (the cat). Morgan, who is two inches shorter than her husband, with pin-straight hair and a penchant for fanny packs, seemed to live more of her life online than she did IRL. She had multiple accounts on Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook, and a handful of different Instagrams, including two for herself, one for her rapper alter ego, Razzlekhan, another for Clarissa, whom the couple often walked outside in a cat stroller, and even one for Lichtenstein's apparent alter ego, the Cat Monkey Wizard.

When investigators delved through these accounts, they were greeted by the oddest couple on the internet.

In one video, Lichtenstein talked about tasting the cat food he fed Clarissa, then told his wife, "It's pretty good. It needs salt, it needs pepper. But other than that it's pretty good.... If it's palatable to me then it's palatable to her." When he wasn't dining on kitty kibbles, he hugged bags of nuts that his Russian grandma sent him, or made tea with his Grabber Buddy Reacher tool, one of those extendable claw hands. He'd use it to steep tea while standing a few feet away from his teacup. He once put an authentic VIP red carpet rope up in the kitchen, telling his wife she couldn't enter because "the club" was closed, then fended her off with a chopstick.

Morgan, for her part, had half a dozen different outré personalities online. She was sometimes Turkish Martha Stewart, who cooked lamb kebabs in her kitchen and "be-razzled" her elliptical machine by decorating it with spray paint and LEDs. Other days, she called herself the Crocodile of Wall Street. She also had an alter ego of sorts named Charlene, who wore an '80s-era blond wig and spoke in a Southern accent about taking laxatives before going out so "I can look skinny." And then there was the ultimate second self-the one, the only-Razzlekhan, a rapper who took selfies with her tongue out and with her hands making a gesture that can only be described as a man masturbating-she called this a "jerk dance." She would rap literally anywhere and everywhere-the New York City subway, on the steps of the public library, in front of the Wall Street bull, and in every orifice of her apartment building: the hallways, elevators, and on the roof, where those federal agents were apparently skulking around in the dead of night.

All of this made the case more perplexing: These two young adults surely were not acting like they had stolen billions in crypto, both because they shared so much of their lives online and because they didn't exactly live like they were furiously wealthy.

Alas, we do live in the age of the internet, where perception and reality rarely meet. And in reality, a lot more was going on behind the scenes with the owners of those effervescent rapping, cat-food-eating social media accounts. Lichtenstein and Morgan were indeed spending money, but in very secretive ways. He had been buying gold coins-70 in all, worth tens of thousands of dollars. He had been purchasing gift cards (from places like Walmart), which could then be converted to air miles. He had also started what appeared to be fake investment companies with actual fake employees, with names like Linara Baymiewa and Andrey Shevelev, which-as far as I can tell-were created using a random name generator.

Then there was the travel-all over the world, to places like Malaysia, Hong Kong, Egypt, Vietnam, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. They stayed in five-star hotels, including The Ritz and Mandarin Oriental. And back in 2019, months before the pandemic would lock down movement around the globe, they had taken a monthlong trip to Ukraine to plan a life there. On the trip, according to federal prosecutors, Lichtenstein and Morgan had procured numerous packages from the dark web that they had delivered to a nearby hotel-packages that contained fake Ukrainian passports, SIM cards, and details for surreptitious bank accounts. They were putting together a new life-new identities-a life that the feds would eventually allege was "pulled from the pages of a spy novel."

"I'M A MOTHER FUCKIN' BAD BITCH; GO ON, MAKE ME A SAMWICH, YOU ANNOYING, LIKE VAG ITCH, SO LAME, IT'S FUCKIN' TRAGIC... BAD BITCH, BAD BITCH."

LICHTENSTEIN APPEARED to methodically plan everything he did. Once he had decided to ask Morgan to marry him, he took a year to plan the proposal. At first, he had wanted to pull a prank on Morgan, even considering faking his own death in front of her, then with a "Surprise! I'm alive!" asking her if she'd spend the rest of her life with him. But instead, he decided to have countless posters of Razzlekhan placed all over New York City, which would lead to a "non-cheesy" billboard placed in Times Square with a photo of her taken from one of her rap videos with the words "The most brutally honest rap album of the year."

She said yes.

In late 2021, as investigators were running surveillance operations on Lichtenstein and Morgan, the couple boarded a plane and flew to the West Coast to get married.

The ceremony took place at Playa Studios in Culver City, California, but like all things about the duo, the wedding itself was not a traditional affair. Their friends waved gold spray-painted banana leaves (with sexual innuendos) as Morgan, dressed in goId herself, was carried into the ceremony on a Moroccan palanquin. The hundred or so guests were given Razzlekhan stickers as offerings. The couple's first dance was to the trance-clubby-eccentric song "Golden Boy," by Sin With Sebastian, where the newlyweds thrust their arms in the air repeatedly as they jogged in place. Then, at the reception, Morgan transformed into Razzlekhan and rapped her latest song, "MOON n STARS," which was about Lichtenstein. (The song opens with Lichtenstein saying: "I love you, I support you, but I don't want to be involved.") While Lichtenstein proudly watched from the side, other guests, especially the elderly, were seemingly in a state of confusion. This was followed by a magic performance by Lichtenstein, who wore a black suit and black shirt and performed a mentalist David Blaine-like magic trick where he told guests to recall a fond memory of Morgan and then went around the room guessing what moment was in their head. "He was actually really good," one guest told me. "He got quite a few of them right."

They both cried during their vows, where they talked about where they had met (San Francisco), how they had fallen in love (over shared eccentricities and a love for "Waffle Parties"), and how they'd moved to New York City to start a family together. They were clearly in love and, having both been labeled eccentrics their whole lives, they'd found each other. He called her his "best friend and the woman of my dreams."

After the ceremony, Morgan surreptitiously told two dozen of the couple's closest friends that a secret bus would pick them up later in the evening and take them to an exclusive after-party. The bus weaved through Los Angeles and dropped them off at a mansion in Westlake Village. There, at a massive home, a DJ played and bartenders and waiters passed hors d'oeuvres. Guests were told not to share any of this on social media. "We're sitting in this massive mansion being served this incredible food, and I kept wondering how they were able to afford all of this," one of Morgan's longtime friends told me.

Agents RETRIEVED $40,000 in cash tied together with pink rubberbands, an assortment of foreign currencies in clear plastic bags, and another bag with the words "BURNER PHONE" written black Sharpie.

Back in New York City after the wedding, while Lichtenstein was seemingly confident about his plan to launder the billions of dollars in stolen Bitcoin and eventually set off to Ukraine where they could not be touched by the U.S. government as there is no extradition treaty with the United States, Morgan was starting to feel the pressure. Friends from earlier in her life who hadn't seen Morgan in a while were a little shocked by how much she had changed. She was more confident with Lichtenstein, but there was also a bit of a crack in the veneer-not of their relationship but of her. A group of friends whom she had been in a Japanese club with had wondered if her Razzlekhan alter ego was her way of dealing with something bigger-some sort of pressure she didn't know how else to release.

Life for Morgan had not been easy. She was an only child who had grown up in Tehama, California, population around 400. At Lassen View Elementary School, her classmates made fun of her high-pitched voice and lisp. By the time she got to Pleasant Valley High School, in Chico, a 30-minute bus ride away, she had started using a rolling suitcase for her books and, in the hallways, kids would kick the wheels and laugh as she walked by. Her friend Kyle Peevers told me that he often just saw her standing by herself at lunch without anyone to talk to. "She eventually made friends with-I can call them non-socialites-kids in science and math class that have scientific skills, but you can't sit down and have a beer with them," Peevers said.

When she arrived in San Francisco after college, according to more than half a dozen people who knew her then, Morgan desperately wanted to be accepted. She would hang out at the Cuban Cigar Bar in North Beach, where the marketing and sales tech folks congregated to network. Clearly uncomfortable, she started to drink to feel more at ease-something industry colleagues started to notice. She traveled a lot for work then, and at the 500 Startups conference, she met Bruno De Souza, a Brazilian app maker, and fell in love. According to people who were her friends at the time, she moved to Brazil and married him on a whim before the relationship quickly turned sour and she had to "escape" while De Souza was away on a trip. She bounced around, trying to figure out who she was.

A professor she had worked with after college had witnessed Morgan's transformations by following her email signature alone. Back in college, Morgan had noted at the bottom of each email that she was an "ECONOMIST" before upgrading to "ECONOMIST & ENTREPRENEUR" once she arrived in San Francisco years later. As of late, the signature read: "ECONOMIST, ENTREPRENEUR, and HUSTLER." Morgan once ran an email marketing company, where, for a while, she became a minor celebrity in the "cold email" space. She then became a columnist for Forbes and Inc. magazines, and labeled herself a fashion designer and surrealist artist. But nothing seemed to stick.

Until she met Lichtenstein.

Now, the couple labeled themselves "crypto investors." Under the guise of wanting to invest in these new start-ups, they began meeting with crypto companies to learn more about the tools they offered. "We get a lot of incoming inquiries from people who want to invest in us," said the CEO of a crypto start-up who had agreed to meet with Morgan and Lichtenstein but immediately noticed something off about their questions. "We saw their backgrounds and something looked strange. I found myself asking, Who are these people? They had this Bonnie and Clyde vibe about them."

"IS SHE HOMELESS, IS SHE BROKE, COULD BE EITHER, COULD BE BOTH. ALL WE KNOW IS RAZZLEKHAN IS FUCKIN' DOPE."

THE SKIES OVER New York City were gray on the morning of January 5,2022, when the feds returned to 75 Wall Street. This time was different. They didn't show up at 3 a.m., when the city and the residents of that towering brown building were fast asleep. They didn't approach the doorman with a ruse about child porn signals being sucked from the internet into a pervert's computer. Instead, on that frigid January morning, around 7 a.m., agents from the FBI, IRS criminal investigation division, and Department of Homeland Security entered the rear of 75 with a search warrant. They boarded the freight elevator and rode up. A knock. An announcement. And inside an apartment they went.

Into Dutch and Razzlekhan's apartment.

Over the past decade or so, digital investigators have learned how important it is to catch perpetrators off guard during a raid so they can't close their laptops or lock any o f their electronics-device s that, in this case, could offer important clues as to where the stolen crypto was stored. That morning, as the feds entered the apartment, chaos set in almost immediately. Clarissa-meow!-scampered under the bed. When the couple was given an opportunity to stay and watch the feds rummage through their lives or leave, they opted to go but first asked to get Clarissa. According to the criminal complaint, while Morgan climbed under the bed to fetch the kitty, she grabbed her cell phone from the nightstand and tried desperately to lock it. When an agent saw what she was doing, the agent had to wrestle the device from her.

In all that day, agents retrieved $40,000 in cash tied together with pink rubber bands, an assortment of foreign currencies in clear plastic bags, and another bag with the words "burner phone" written in black Sharpie. There were about 50 computer tablets, phones, and other electronics in the apartment. The feds also found a copy of the novel The Water Goats and another book on Japanese maps, which had both been hollowed out to hide money or electronics.

The evidence taken from the raid allowed the feds to definitively tie the online wallet associated with the Bitfinex hack to Lichtenstein and Morgan, and a month later they were arrested.

The duo was charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States, which are punishable by up to 25 years in prison.

In its press release announcing the arrest, the government noted this was the "largest financial seizure" in U.S. history. While the government had managed to seize 94,000 Bitcoin, worth around $3.6 billion, 25,000 of the original coins were missing and had been, according to the feds, "transferred out of Lichtenstein's wallet via a complicated money laundering process that ended with some of the stolen funds being deposited into financial accounts controlled by Lichtenstein and Morgan."

News of the arrest was like Clarissa's catnip for social media and the press. On Twitter, the couple was lambasted and ripped apart. "Never mind about the Bitcoin hack, this vid is a crime against humanity," one person wrote about Morgan's rap videos. "Judge gotta add another 50 yrs to her sentence for this." "I would like this better if she were silent," another person wrote about her videos. "It would not be humane to lock this person up with another human being," another wrote.

Headlines leaned into the multiple nicknames the couple had given themselves over the years. "Meet the 'Crocodile of Wall Street' Rapper Accused of Laundering Billions of Dollars in Crypto" wrote The Washington Post. Soon they got their own couple's nickname: "Bitcoin Bonnie & Clyde." (Or " Bitcoin Bonnie and Crypto Clyde.") The case against them seemed to be so secure that they were already in talks to secure a plea deal.

I asked one person involved in the investigation why the duo didn't just pull an Edward Snowden? Hop on a plane to Russia or Ukraine, where they could eat blinis and drink vodka and launder their billions in stolen crypto? It turns out they were planning to do just that-going to Russia or Ukraine or both-and hiding out far from the reaches of the federal government, this person explained. "That's why they had the passports and the cash and the books with the cutout holes to hide electronics. It appears they were planning to leave but that we got them right before they had the chance to do so." This person added: "There's a scenario where we would have entered their apartment with a search warrant and they were already gone."

Looking back, the oddest thing is what happened in the month between the time the feds raided the couple's home and the moment they were arrested and charged. While Lichtenstein remained relatively quiet online, as he had for the past several years, Morgan continued to post on all of her social media accounts as if nothing was going on. As if life were normal. She posted an early rap song she had written, titled "Bleeding Buckets," which was about getting her period. "Endometriosis; cleaving like mitosis," she sang. "Feels so atrocious; lots of emotions; makes me ferocious." She proclaimed it was her "fucking theme song." Clarissa the cat continued to post pictures of her outings. And Morgan continued to tweet about crypto and investing.

You wouldn't have believed that the woman behind these accounts was just days away from being arrested for conspiring to launder billions of dollars in Bitcoin. A woman who could possibly not get out of federal prison until she was 56 years old.

Was Morgan just not that concerned about her fate? Or was her alter ego Razzlekhan, as her friends had suspected, actually her way of dealing with a mounting pressure she simply didn't know how to escape?

A clue into Morgan's psychological state came around the same time the feds were closing in like a suffocating demon. One day Morgan found herself on Facebook, and she came across a post by a friend who had had a rough go of it a few years earlier and who, on this particular day, posted an image of a kintsugi pot-which, as Morgan knew all too well from her days in the Japanese club-is a piece of pottery that was broken but had been pieced back together with glue and golden filigree. It is meant as a metaphor for embracing one's flaws and imperfections.

Below the picture, Morgan commented that things were "not going well" for her. "Life was not good," and, like the pottery, she said, "I feel broken."

The friend saw the post and offered a little advice: "Many of us feel broken; hopefully some of us get put back together again." There was a brief pause in the conversation. Then Morgan responded with a half-smiley face emoji.

A few days later, the news broke that she, along with Lichtenstein, had been arrested and charged with possessing $3.6 billion in stolen Bitcoin. The hundreds of friends that Morgan had made over the last 20 years couldn't have been more surprised by what they read. Of all the different alter egos and personalities that Morgan might have created, being a multibillion-dollar crypto launderer was not among them. "Shocked" was all that people who knew Morgan and Lichtenstein could say when I asked what they thought when they read the news. "Shocked!"

Lichtenstein, who was deemed a flight risk because of his Russian ties, is currently being held in a jail in Virginia. Morgan, who recently got her own lawyer separate from the one she was sharing with her husband, was allowed to return to the apartment at 75 Wall Street. Both are currently negotiating a plea deal with the U.S. government. Neither of them have posted on social media since they were arrested.
"Razzle Dazzle, bitches!"

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THE BALLAD OF BITCOIN BONNIE AND CLYDE | Vanity Fair

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Couples rarely commit crimes together. But Ilya "Dutch" Lichtenstein and Heather "Razzlekhan" Morgan, whose social media antics disguised an alleged plot to abscond with billions in stolen crypto, are no ordinary couple

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This source is similar to others given the topics available information out to the public, though it includes new information regarding specific mixing platforms and other information regarding the hack.

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Bitfinex hacker and wife plead guilty to money laundering conspiracy involving billions in cryptocurrency | Internal Revenue Service

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August 3, 2023 — A married couple from New York City pleaded guilty today to money laundering conspiracies arising from the hack and theft of approximately 120,000 bitcoin from Bitfinex, a global cryptocurrency exchange.

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This goes over the motivations of different cyber crimes. When it comes to financial crimes in cyberspace, a lot of the motivations are financial. Though it is a specific crime, there are more specific motivations. Power and control are big motivations, especially over the victim.

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“Understanding the Psychology Behind Cyber Crimes”

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It is crucial to delve into the psychology behind these crimes to better comprehend their complexities and develop effective strategies …

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Cybercriminals are increasingly using stolen personal data to plan complex fraud schemes, according to the Thomson Reuters story on identity theft. It illustrates how these criminals frequently combine technology and psychological manipulation, making it more challenging to detect and stop fraud. Weak security procedures, social engineering, and data breaches are the main causes of identity theft. The essay highlights the necessity for stronger security measures as well as the increasing complexity and scope of cybercrime.

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Identity theft is being fueled by AI & cyber-attacks - Thomson Reuters Institute

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As long as there is evolving technology, there will be evolving fraud; fortunately, there are ways to protect people from cyber-fraud threats.

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This could be one of the images used in our paper for the section on identity theft.

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This text focuses on identity theft. It discusses what classifies as identity theft, how it affects those that are the victims of identity theft, and preventative methods to reduce identity theft.

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(Spring 2008) - Identity theft is made possible by the nature of modern payment systems. In the modern economy, sellers are willing to offer goods and services to strangers in exchange for a promise to pay, provided the promise is backed up by data that link the buyer to a specific account or credit history. Identity theft involves acquiring enough data about another person to counterfeit this link, enabling the thief to acquire goods while attributing the charge to another person’s account. In this article, we discuss what is (and is not) known about the prevalence and cost of identity theft, describe the institutional framework in which identity theft takes place, and consider some of the main policy issues associated with the problem.

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I will be using this video in the slides because it shown a person who was the victim of identity theft.

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Focus on motivations and how they take on certain roles for different approaches to cybercrime. Thinking what goes on in the mind of the criminal before and during the crime that makes them want to do it in the first place.

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Video on basics of motivations

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Types of Cyber Attackers and Motivations

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Has theories on why cybercrime occurs. Also applies theories to retroactive and proactive preventions of cybercrime and how they can be put to use in the real world.

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Profiling Hackers - The Psychology of Cybercrime | Mark T. Hoffmann | TEDxHHL

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Cybercriminals posing as job applicants and stealing information

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Cybercriminals posing as job applicants and stealing information

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These kinds of cybercriminals are specifically looking to target companies with remote positions so they can steal data from the company to use for malicious purposes. These take away from honest applicants, leading to massive financial losses for the everyday american and the company alike.

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Fake job seekers are flooding the market, thanks to AI

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Companies say fake job seekers are using artificial intelligence to get remote jobs, often in an attempt to steal insider secrets.

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I found the quotes “fraudsters can keep using stolen identities for years and share the information with other criminals who use it for their scams” (Biegelman, 2009) and “the stolen identity can live on for years, continuing to damage the victim” (Biegelman, 2009) in the text that I want to use in the paper.

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Not a week goes by when identity theft isn t mentioned in the media or that a Congressional outcry isn t heard about this unrelenting crime. The first authoritative book on identity theft, Identity Theft Handbook is written by a career professional who has spent over 25 years investigating and preventing identity theft in both the public and private sectors. Its rich real-world content includes interviews with government and private sector thought leaders. As well, the costs of identity theft, future trends, and prevention guidance is discussed. For investigators, auditors, and managers.

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In this text I found the quote “Identity theft became a federal crime in the United States in 1998 with the passage of the Identity Theft Assumption and Deterrence Act” (Reyns, 2013) that I want to use in the slides.

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Talks about the psychological process behind different cybercrime.

Jadhav, Swapnali, et al. “Psychological Influences of Cyber Crimes on Human Mind and Behaviour.” Bureau of Police Research and Development, The Indian Police Journal, Dec, 2022, bprd.nic.in/uploads/pdf/October-December_2022.pdf. Accessed 12 Feb. 2025.

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I want to use this text for the identity theft slide because it talks about some of the methods of identity theft.

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Although identity theft is one of the fastest growing economic crimes in the United States, researchers have devoted little attention to understanding identity thieves. Basing their work on interviews with 59 inmates serving time in federal prison for a variety of identity theft crimes, Copes and Vieraitis use criminological and sociological theories to gain insight into the cognitive, behavioral, and organizational aspects of identity theft. They also offer policy recommendations to reduce the ever-increasing threat of this crime.

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This blog goes into detail of the inner workings of the couple, and how their heist came and went in the blink of an eye. The focal point of this article is looking into the chain of exchanges that the couple used to try to hide their scheme. Looking at the exchanges, the couple used a variety of cryptocurrency sites to exchange their stolen bitcoin, and in doing so created a large web of exchanges.

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Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan Sentenced In The Bitfinex Case As Government Recovers $10 Billion in Stolen Funds | TRM Blog

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Learn about the Bitfinex investigation — which resulted in the largest seizure in US history — led by former IRS-CI Special Agent Chris Janczewski (TRM’s Head of Global Investigations), and unpack the details of Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan’s sentencings.

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Explicit Warning Advised: Terrible Music and Language

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Explicit Warning Advised: Terrible Music and Language

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Words can't explain how bad this song is, though it explains the individuals involved in this crime and their weird avenue of stress relief.

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Razzlekhan - VERSACE BEDOUIN aka "CROCODILE OF WALL ST" 🐊 (official music video)

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Financial Gain: Many hackers are motivated by the prospect of quick, large rewards. The internet provides a somewhat anonymous environment in which criminals can commit fraud, identity theft, and hacking to get access to bank accounts or credit card information.

Revenge or political motivations: Some people commit cybercrime to exact revenge on a person, company, or government agency. Hacktivism is an example of how political ideas motivate cybercriminals to disrupt networks in protest.

Psychological Factors: Some people may engage in cybercrime for the pleasure, excitement, or challenge. The process of circumventing security systems may be intriguing to those who love putting their technological talents to the test or achieving recognition within specific online communities.

Peer Pressure and Social Influence: In some circumstances, individuals are persuaded by peers or groups that legitimize or glorify cybercrime, causing them to engage in criminal acts in order to fit in or gain social approval.

Anonymity: The internet world allows people to be somewhat anonymous. This sense of invisibility might encourage people to commit crimes without fear of being detected, especially if they feel distant from the victims.

Lack of Fear of Consequences: When compared to regular crimes, the punishment for cybercrimes may appear less certain or severe, particularly for those who are not arrested right away. This can promote a "low-risk, high-reward" mindset.

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Why Does Cybercrime Happen?Cybercrime occurs for various reasons, and understanding these motivations can provide insights into why individuals and groups engage in illegal online activities

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Kevin Mitnick is a well-known figure in the history of cybercrime. In the late twentieth century, he got unauthorized access to several computer networks, including those of significant corporations. His activities included stealing proprietary software and intercepting critical information. Mitnick's actions led to his arrest and conviction for multiple counts of wire and computer fraud. After serving his term, he became a cybersecurity consultant, utilizing his knowledge to assist organizations protect themselves from the same threats he once presented.

What makes Mitnick's story so interesting is the psychological depth of his acts. His actions were motivated not only by financial considerations, but also by a strong intellectual curiosity, a desire to push boundaries, and the excitement of breaking complex security systems. This is consistent with the psychology concept of intrinsic motivation, in which people engage in an activity because it is intrinsically enjoyable, rather than for external benefits.

Mitnick's hacking exemplified obsessive behavior and a cognitive misconception typical among cybercriminals: believing that the act is harmless because it does not entail physical violence or face-to-face confrontation. The internet's anonymity most certainly contributed to a sense of detachment from the repercussions of his conduct, a psychological state known as deindividuation, in which people feel less accountable for their behavior when they are not personally identified.

Mitnick may also have experienced moral disengagement, which occurs when established ethical standards are circumvented by reasoning (for example, "I'm not stealing, just exploring"). Many cybercriminals construct an identity based on technological proficiency and supremacy, and others even see their activities as a sort of protest or challenge to authority—making cybercrime a way to gain control, competence, or relevance in a digital environment.

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Who is Kevin Mitnick? Once the 'world's most famous hacker,' he is now a speaker, cybersecurity consultant, and a global authority on social engineering.

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I will be using this image in the slides.

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Fleck, Anna. "The Evolution of the Crypto Economy." Statista, 2 June 2022, https://www.statista.com/chart/27561/evolution-of-the-crypto-economy/.

Summary:
This infographic provides a decade-long overview of the cryptocurrency market, highlighting significant milestones and trends. It details the exponential growth in the number of cryptocurrencies, from a few hundred in 2014 to nearly 20,000 by May 2022. The corresponding fluctuations in market capitalization, which peaked at $3 trillion in November 2021 before declining to approximately $1.3 trillion. The chart also notes the decreasing dominance of Bitcoin, whose market share fell from around 80% in 2014 to between 40% and 50% by 2022, with Ethereum emerging as a significant alternative.

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Infographic: The Evolution of the Crypto Economy

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This chart shows the evolution of the crypto economy over the past decade.

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Forescout Research – Vedere Labs. "The Current State of Ransomware Risk." Forescout, 2 June 2022, https://www.forescout.com/blog/ransomware-risk-current-state/.

Summary:
This blog post provides an analysis of the escalating threat of ransomware attacks, emphasizing their impact across various sectors, including healthcare, government, and critical infrastructure. It highlights a 15% increase in attacks compared to the previous year, with an average of 15 incidents per day. The article discusses the evolution of ransomware tactics, including the rise of ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) models and the targeting of Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

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The Current State of Ransomware Risk - Forescout

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Ransomware risk is top of mind for citizens and CISOs alike. From the board room to the room known as the ‘SOC’, everyone is feeling the pain of disruption. Being locked out of a system and forced back to pen and paper is shocking to our working lives. Too often, it is delaying a much-needed […]

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Talks about the revenge motivation for cyber crimes.

It is thought to be more personal than any of the other motivations. It is meant to hurt someone or an organization, they might have felt wronged in some sort of way so they want to get back at that person or organization.

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Revenge is sweet: Investigation of the effects of Approach‐Motivated anger on the RewP in the motivated anger delay (MAD) paradigm

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Past research has found that neural activity associated with feedback processing is enhanced by positive approach‐motivated states. However, no past work has examined how reward processing changes in the context of revenge. Using a novel aggression…

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Rehabilitation is indeed possible in some cases, particularly when the offender's motivation stems from curiosity, intellectual challenge, or a desire for notoriety rather than malicious intent. A notable example is Kevin Mitnick, once one of the FBI’s most wanted hackers. After serving five years in prison, Mitnick turned his life around and became a respected cybersecurity consultant and author. His story is often cited to demonstrate that individuals who engage in cybercrime can use their skills ethically and constructively when given the opportunity.

This approach to rehabilitation is often formalized through the concept of “ethical hacking.” Former hackers can be recruited to work in cybersecurity, helping organizations identify and patch vulnerabilities in their systems. This not only provides meaningful employment but also channels the individual’s technical abilities in a socially beneficial direction.

However, rehabilitation is not always successful or appropriate. Some cybercriminals exhibit antisocial behavior, lack remorse, or maintain ideological beliefs that justify their crimes. In these cases, rehabilitation efforts may be met with resistance or manipulation. Successful rehabilitation generally depends on several key factors: the individual's willingness to change, the presence of a support system or mentor, and access to legitimate opportunities within the tech industry.

Ultimately, while the consequences of cybercrime are severe, both for victims and perpetrators, rehabilitation remains a viable and even necessary path for some offenders. With the right support and structure, the same minds that once exploited vulnerabilities can be part of building a safer digital future.

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Can cybercrime ‘rehab’ help young offenders?

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Training camp in Bristol aims to steer teenagers away from criminal hacking

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Profiling Hackers - The Psychology of Cybercrime

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What motivates hackers? What are their psychological manipulation techniques? How can we become a “human firewall’”? More than 90% of cyberattacks are due to human error. Humans are the weakest link in Cybersecurity. But something can be done. Mark T. Hofmann is a Profiler, trained and certified in the US. He is a university lecturer for Behavioral- & Cyber Psychology and sought-after Keynote Speaker on Cybersecurity. Hofmann has met and anonymously interviewed hackers and will take you on a journey into the mind of the perpetrator. Get an inspiring insight into the psychology of cybercrime from one of the best-known profilers. He focuses on the human factor and shows how we can become a “human firewall” and detect social engineering attacks. https://www.mark-thorben-hofmann.de/en/cybercrime/