Simply days earlier than starting a jail sentence for her half within the most profitable crypto heist ever, Heather Morgan — who, underneath the identify Razzlekhan, went as viral for her rap movies because the outsized crime itself — is already decided to rewrite her story.
“People act like I’m some evil villain bitch or some dumb trophy wife,” Morgan, 34, advised NYNext. “I can’t be both those things, but I can be neither.”
In an unique interview earlier than she surrenders February 4 at a federal institute in Victorville, California, Morgan stated she needed to set the report straight about her involvement within the “Biggest Heist Ever” — as a latest Netflix documentary primarily based on her and husband Ilya Lichtenstein’s story titles it.
“I’m not proud of the acts that led my husband and I to being arrested,” Morgan stated. However she stays defiant in her alternative to not rat him out for a greater plea deal.
“I could have thrown him under the bus five different ways … I’d rather be a proud felon than a disloyal backstabbing wife … ,” she stated. “As a dedicated wife, I didn’t want to do anything that would put him in a worse position.”
However her fundamental message? “This was a media spectacle — but they were wrong about me.”
She has now launched a authorized battle towards Netflix, claiming the movie is defamatory.
Whereas it was Lichtenstein who hacked the Bitfinex change in 2016 and stole 119,754 Bitcoin (then value $71 million), Morgan allowed her private monetary accounts for use for laundering and helped arrange quite a few digital foreign money change accounts to hide the supply of the cash — one thing she believes any spouse would do.
“What married couple doesn’t have intermingled finances?” she stated of her involvement.
In response to the felony grievance, the couple — who rented a $1.5 million house in FiDi, reportedly embellished with animal pelts and a taxidermy alligator — spent the unlawful proceeds on, amongst different issues, gold and NFTs.
When the Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde, as they’ve been dubbed, had been arrested at their Manhattan residence in 2022, prosecutors discovered a bag of burner telephones and a file on Lichtenstein’s pc referred to as “passport_ideas.”
They pleaded responsible to cash laundering a 12 months later. Morgan obtained 18 months. Lichtenstein was sentenced to 5 years and has already served over half of his time at a detention heart.
Regardless of underscoring her loyalty to her husband and associate in crime, Morgan satirically needed to make a brand new buddy in jail: Caroline Ellison — the FTX govt who received a closely shortened sentence for fraud due to ratting on her colleagues, together with ex-boyfriend Sam Bankman-Fried.
“I asked for Danbury prison, hoping I might get to know Caroline Ellison, as I thought it would be a fun plot twist,” she stated. “And I figured she probably had the resources to pick a bougie facility.”
Morgan didn’t precisely develop up bougie. She was raised in a rural city in Northern California the place, she as soon as wrote on Instagram, “my dad literally trained me on how to hunt with a spear ‘in case a wild bore [sic] charged me.’”
After bouncing round Japan, she studied on the College of California Davis and the American College in Cairo earlier than, at age 23, founding a gross sales tech firm referred to as SalesFolk. That’s how she met Lichtenstein, a Russia-born entrepreneur and crypto investor who had secured a $1.5 million funding from Mark Cuban and different buyers for his gross sales start-up MixRank in 2011.
“I spent most of my twenties working my ass off to build a bootstrapped business by myself, which I turned into a million-dollar business,” Morgan stated. “In the end, all the money I made from my first company went to paying legal bills for my husband and me.”
Earlier than that occurred, although, the “business ultimately left me burnt out and feeling unfulfilled, which is why I decided to create Razzlekhan.”
Maybe the one factor extra shocking than the heist’s monumental financial sum was Morgan’s second life as a rapper who, in response to her web site, was “taking on everyone from big software companies to health care to finance bros.”
In a now-viral video for her track “Versace Bedouin,” Morgan promoted herself because the “crocodile of Wall Street” whereas leaping round FiDi landmarks in a gold jacket and cap that reads “0 F–ks,” as unwitting vacationers gawp from the sidewalk.
The feds even quoted a few of her lyrics within the case towards her: “Spear phish your password / All your funds transferred,” their courtroom submitting learn, including that it was a reference to a hacking method.
Now, Morgan stated she’s uninterested in being depicted as a girl who discovered a wealthy man to help her inventive aspirations.
“The government somehow managed to weaponize Razzlekhan to undermine all of my professional business accomplishments as an entrepreneur,” she advised NYNext.
“No money from the heist was ever spent on Razzlekhan … people hear this huge sum of money but we’re not lavish. We’re eccentric.”
When Morgan and Lichtenstein married, buddies carried her down the aisle atop a Moroccan-style bridal throne because the 1986 hair-metal anthem “The Final Countdown” performed; on the reception after, Morgan carried out one in every of her personal songs, “Turkish Martha Stewart.”
Final Friday, Morgan launched a track and music video, “DIPLOMAT P–$¥” a few jet-setting life: “Moved to Cairo from Hong Kong/ Late Night partying with tech moguls/ Hella stalkers, marriage proposals/ Dated a motherf–king crazy rich Asian.”
Whereas it’s primarily based partially on her story, Morgan insisted, “There is a huge contradiction between me and Razzlekhan” — including that in actual life, she’s Sort A, whereas her alter ego is a celebration woman. “Razzlekhan was the first time in my life I was truly doing something for myself.”
She’s not pleased with the best way her story has been advised in Netflix’s “The Biggest Heist Ever” and stated her legal professional has despatched cease-and-desist letters to the streamer, producer Library Movies, filmmaker Chris Smith and journalist Nick Bilton, who wrote the movie.
Morgan’s legal professional Serena Wu advised NYNext: “We are reviewing our legal options but starting with these cease and desist letters,” including that the movie is disseminating “defamatory statements against Ms. Morgan.”
Morgan stated she speaks to her husband, whom she hasn’t seen in three years, day by day and plans to reunite with him when they’re each out. The couple will even be reuniting with their Bengal cat Clarissa, who Morgan allegedly used to distract federal brokers when their house was raided. The cat will spend the approaching months with Morgan’s shut buddies and keep lively on Instagram, she added.
And, “when I come out of prison, I look forward to continuing to pursue creative endeavors as Razzlekhan,” Morgan stated. “The [prison] is conveniently positioned not too removed from Hollywood, so let’s see what occurs subsequent.
“This is not the last the world will be hearing from me.”
This story is a part of NYNext, a new editorial collection that highlights New York Metropolis innovation throughout industries, in addition to the personalities main the best way.
