According to Deadline, Amazon MGM Studios has started production on a movie related to the 2016 Bitfinex exchange hack. The film will be based on a couple involved in the case and will depict the money laundering process and actions of Ilya Lichtenstein and his wife Heather Morgan in this large-scale cryptocurrency theft.
Reportedly, the movie will be titled after Heather Morgan’s stage name as a hip-hop rapper, Razzlekhan. The script takes inspiration from a 2022 article about this couple in The New York Times.
In August 2016, Bitfinex exchange suffered a hacker attack resulting in a loss of approximately 119,754 bitcoins. Subsequently, Lichtenstein and Morgan laundered over 94,000 bitcoins through a series of small and complex transactions across multiple accounts and platforms. In February 2022, the couple was arrested by US authorities, and the seized bitcoins, valued at around $54 million at the time of the incident, were found to be worth over $3.6 billion when discovered by the prosecution.
In August 2023, as part of a plea agreement reached with the prosecution, Lichtenstein admitted to the charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering, while Morgan admitted to conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit fraud against the United States.
