(Bloomberg) -- The mastermind of one of the biggest cryptocurrency heists ever should spend five years in prison for a money-laundering conspiracy tied to the $6 billion hack of the Bitfinex exchange, US prosecutors told a judge.
Ilya Lichtenstein, who pleaded guilty last year, should spend more time behind bars than his rapper wife and co-conspirator Heather Morgan, the government said Tuesday in a court filing. Last week, prosecutors said Morgan, who’d dubbed herself the “Crocodile of Wall Street,” should get 18 months in prison.
Prosecutors said Lichtenstein fits the profile of young cyber criminals, whose online activity is “normalized in a way that trivializes the impact on the victims.”
“A strong sentence in this case will help to break this cycle,” government lawyers told a federal judge in Washington.
Lichtenstein was the primary person responsible for the Bitfinex hack, and then later laundered the proceeds with the help of his wife, who goes by the moniker Razzlekhan in her rap videos, the government said. She admitted helping her husband hide the stolen crypto even after finding out in 2020 that he was behind the hack.
But prosecutors stopped short of demanding the maximum sentence for Lichtenstein, citing his cooperation in other criminal cases. Earlier this year, he testified on behalf of the government in a money-laundering trial involved a mixing service called Bitcoin Fog.
Lichtenstein and Morgan used sophisticated money-laundering techniques to cover their tracks, including depositing and withdrawing funds from crypto exchanges and darknet markets, according to the government. The couple used the proceeds to purchase nonfungible tokens, gold and Walmart gift cards, prosecutors said.
They are scheduled to be sentenced in November.
The case is USA v. Lichtenstein, 23-cr-00239, US District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).
--With assistance from Robert Burnson.
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