A married couple who managed to pull off a $4.5 billion cryptocurrency theft are the focus of an upcoming Netflix documentary.
The intriguing tale of Ilya ‘Dutch’ Lichtenstein and Heather ‘Razzlekhan’ Morgan—nicknamed the Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde for their involvement in the 2016 Bitfinex hack—will be the subject of the Netflix documentary Biggest Heist Ever.
You can watch the trailer below.
Residing in New York, the couple appeared to have a promising future ahead.
Lichtenstein was a co-founder of a sales company, while Morgan was a columnist who had written for Forbes.
She also gained attention for her rap videos on YouTube under the alias Razzlekhan, known for their awkward execution.
However, behind closed doors, the pair were executing one of the most significant cryptocurrency thefts on record.
The duo took approximately 120,000 Bitcoin from the virtual currency exchange Bitfinex, based in Hong Kong, causing the currency’s value to drop by 20 percent.
By the time they were apprehended in 2022, their haul was valued at an astonishing $4.5 billion.
Lichtenstein spent months orchestrating the hack, which IRS agents described as involving ‘the most complicated money-laundering techniques’ they had ever encountered.
He employed advanced tools to execute over 2,000 unauthorized transactions, amounting to 120,000 Bitcoin.
Although Morgan was initially unaware of the hack, she later assisted her husband in creating a plan to obscure the origins of the stolen Bitcoin.
They utilized fake identities and transferred the cryptocurrency through multiple accounts, breaking down the transactions to smaller amounts to avoid detection.
Some of the pilfered funds were used for gold, NFTs, Uber rides, and a PlayStation.
In early 2017, small amounts of the stolen Bitcoin were moved from their original wallet to the Dark Web marketplace AlphaBay for laundering purposes.
After the FBI-led international law enforcement shut down AlphaBay, the funds were redirected to the Russian marketplace Hydra.
The closure of AlphaBay is believed to have enabled authorities to trace the illegally transacted bitcoins.
Eventually, law enforcement obtained a search warrant for a cloud storage service used by Lichtenstein and discovered a spreadsheet listing wallet addresses associated with the hack, along with their passwords.
One of these wallets contained around 94,000 Bitcoin. As transactions were recorded on the blockchain, authorities were able to track the funds, and acquiring the passwords permitted them to seize it.
The couples’ scheme unraveled when US federal authorities charged them with conspiring to launder Bitcoin, leading to their arrest in Manhattan in February 2022.
In August 2023, Lichtenstein pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and conducting the hack.
Morgan admitted to one count of money laundering conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
In November 2024, Lichtenstein was sentenced to five years in prison, while Morgan received an 18-month sentence.
Biggest Heist Ever will be available on Netflix starting Friday, December 6.