Heather Morgan, who is accused of laundering billions of dollars worth of bitcoins related to the hacking of the Bitfinex exchange in 2016, has been seen at several cryptocurrency conferences, in particular Bitcoin 2024. Her presence has caused controversy in the community.
She is the one next to the waitress. pic.twitter.com/C25NLo30iV
— Demelza Hays, Ph.D. (@CryptoPhD) July 28, 2024Bitcoin developer and co-founder of Bitcoin storage company Casa Jameson Lopp called the situation extremely suspicious. He called on the organizers of profile events to consider Morgan as a source of threat and deny her entry.
🚨PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT🚨
Heather Morgan, AKA 'Razzlekhan' is a self proclaimed social engineer who pleaded guilty to hacking Bitfinex for 120,000 BTC back in 2016.
I crossed paths with her in Nashville this week. After asking around I discovered she has been spotted at… pic.twitter.com/HxQTgBlTmx
Despite the existence of charges and a guilty plea in August 2023, Morgan was released on bail of $3 million in February 2022. Her husband and accomplice Ilya Lichtenstein is currently under house arrest. The judge considered that he played a more significant role in planning the Bitfinex hack than his wife. Their case is scheduled for November 2024.
According to available information, Morgan presented herself at events as a "Web3 consultant".
In a Cointelegraph comment, Lopp suggested that the hacker has two reasons for attending crypto conferences. Either she is looking for opportunities to provide consulting services in order to pay court fines, or this is "an attempt to mitigate the sentence by gathering intelligence in the interests of the government."
Explaining the espionage version, Lopp said that even a person ideologically opposed to the government would rarely prefer an additional prison term to cooperation.
The developer's position has been criticized by X users. They considered the ban on attending bitcoin conferences contrary to the spirit of inclusivity and openness inherent in the industry.
In response, Lopp pointed out that no one is able to ban Morgan from using bitcoin, but the guests of the event should be protected from "known thieves" and other unscrupulous participants.
Recall that as a result of the hacking in August 2016, Bitfinex lost almost 120,000 BTC ($71.8 million at the exchange rate at that time, more than $ 7.6 billion at the current price) and suspended work for a while.
On February 1, 2022, 94,643 BTC were set in motion. In the same month, U.S. authorities detained Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan. 94,643 BTC ($3.6 billion at that time) were seized from them.
The pair collectively face up to 30 years in prison.
https://forklog.com/cryptorium/birzha-bitfinex-istoriya-osobennosti-komanda