Heather Morgan, one of the married duo convicted in the Bitfinex hack, jumped back on social media last week after getting out of prison, and the up-and-coming rapper known as “Razzlekhan” touted President Donald Trump’s aide in her early release.
But a White House official told CoinDesk that it had nothing to do with a commutation of her sentence.
That’s despite a video she posted from her bathtub over the weekend in which she said, “I’d like to give a shoutout to Papa Trump for commuting my 18-month sentence,” which appeared to have spurred online media reports that the president was intervening.
She did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the discrepancy.
Morgan had been convicted and sentenced for her role in laundering the proceeds of the hack, said to have been carried out by her husband, Ilya Lichtenstein. He stole nearly 120,000 bitcoin, worth about $13.8 billion at today’s valuation, though it was worth significantly less during the 2016 incident and his arrest in 2022. He is still serving his five-year sentence.
The couple was the subject of a documentary Netflix released last year called “Biggest Heist Ever.”
After her early release from the California prison, which would be consistent with an inmate maintaining good behavior, she launched a flurry of social media posts, including one about Trump’s high-profile pardon of former Binance chief Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. She wrote, “Guess it’s crypto pardon season,” further suggesting that she may have benefited from the president’s intervention in her sentence.
That pardon, which followed Trump’s earlier pardon of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, drew objections Tuesday from Senate Democrats, including Elizabeth Warren, who wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent arguing that the move “signals to cryptocurrency executives and other white-collar criminals that they can commit crimes.”
At Morgan’s sentencing in Washington nearly a year ago, she had told the court she was “extremely sorry and deeply regretted the choices I made,” In a tearful statement, she admitted to using her “time and energy to do harm instead of good, and I am ashamed of that.”
Now, Morgan hints at a return to his rap career in a pinned post on social media X, “Who’s ready for NEW Razzlekhan music?”
Read more: Bitfinex Hack Launderer Heather ‘Razzlekhan’ Morgan sentenced to 18 months in prison
