Bitfinex bitcoin thief Ilya Lichtenstein thanks Trump for early prison release
The Russian-US citizen who hacked crypto exchange Bitfinex and stole nearly 120,000 bitcoins said he was released early from prison thanks to bipartisan prison reform legislation signed by President Donald Trump.
Ilya Lichtenstein, 38, was sentenced to prison in November 2024. five years imprisonment After pleading guilty to a money laundering conspiracy charge and admitting to hacking crypto assets worth billions of dollars.
But a post on Lichtenstein’s official X account late Thursday night said, “I was released from prison early thanks to President Trump’s First Step Act.” it said.
Courtroom sketch of Ilya “Dutchman” Lichtenstein in Washington DC federal court pleading guilty to laundering stolen Bitcoin.
Artist: William Hennessey
“I am determined to make a positive impact in the field of cybersecurity as soon as possible,” Lichtenstein’s post said.
“To the supporters, thank you for everything. To the haters, I look forward to proving you wrong.”
A Trump administration official told CNBC Friday morning that Lichtenstein “has served a significant portion of his sentence and is currently under house arrest in accordance with the law and Bureau of Prisons policies.”
Lichtenstein’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on his release.
Lichtenstein’s wife, Heather Morgan, who pleaded guilty to helping launder stolen funds, shared Lichtenstein’s message on her own X account, saying: “The best New Year’s gift I could have received was finally bringing my husband home after 4 years of separation.”
Morgan’s tweet, sent two minutes after Lichtenstein’s tweet, included a photo of the couple smiling while taking a selfie.
Lichtenstein’s sentence included time already in custody following his arrest in 2022, more than five years after the Bitfinex hack.
As of Friday morning, a search for Lichtenstein’s name using the federal government’s inmate locator website returned a result showing that he was scheduled to be released on February 9.
The Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Photography booking for Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein.
Courtesy: Alexandria Adult Detention Center.
Morgan, a 35-year-old rapper who has released music under the name “Razzlekhan” and has also been referred to as “The Crocodile of Wall Street,” was sentenced to 18 months in prison shortly after Lichtenstein was sentenced.
He went to prison in February. However, on October 26, Morgan shared a post: video He said he was released early.
He also thanked Trump.
“Why hello Razzlers, I miss you,” Morgan said in the clip, in which she appeared in the bathtub wearing only a hair towel.
“It’s great to be back and I want to thank Pope Trump for shortening my 18-month sentence,” he said. An email to Morgan’s manager was not immediately responded to.
Trump signed the First Step Act in December 2018 during his first term as president. The legislation aimed to reduce the size of the federal prison population through a series of reforms, including establishing a “risk and needs assessment system” that gave some inmates the chance for early release to home confinement.
It’s unclear whether Trump or the White House had a direct hand in Lichtenstein or Morgan securing early release. But the bitcoin hacker and his wife’s announcements follow a series of high-profile cybercrime-related pardons and commutations handed out by the crypto-friendly president since his return to office.
A day after his inauguration, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, founder of the notorious dark web marketplace Silk Road.
In October, Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the founder of major crypto exchange Binance, who pleaded guilty in 2023 to enabling money laundering on the platform.
