Netflix films the strange life of the BTC launderers
2 min read
Btreaming provider Netflix follows the lives of Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, best known as the couple who allegedly attempted to launder $4.5 billion in BTC linked to the 2016 Bitfinex hack. Chris Smith, who also worked behind the camera on the hit Netflix series Tiger King, is said to be directing. The documentary is produced by Nick Bilton, author of “American Kingpin”, which deals with the history of the Darknet marketplace Silk Road and its mastermind Ross Ulbricht. A start date for the series is not yet known.
Netflix is filming the life of the BTC launderers
Netflix goes deep down the rabbit hole of the Bitfinex hack, the according to Streaming provider ‘biggest financial crime case in history’ At the heart of the action: Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, who were arrested on February 8 in New York on suspicion of money laundering conspiracy.
Even if the “biggest case of financial crime in history” is far eclipsed by the 750,000 BTC stolen during the hack on Mt.Gox, the film and series maker brings a robber’s pistol from the picture book to the screen with the Bitfinex story.
Bitfinex Hack: How $66 million became $4.5 billion
With the arrest of Lichtenstein and Morgan last Tuesday, US authorities struck a major blow against crypto crime. The couple are suspected of laundering funds stolen from crypto exchange Bitfinex in a 2016 hack through a branched system of transactions. The loss of around 120,000 captured BTC at the time amounted to 66 million US dollars. Most recently, the virtual stolen goods were worth $4.5 billion.
Accounts of fictitious people and anonymization methods such as mixing: the alleged perpetrators pulled out all the stops to cover up their tracks. For years they played cops and robbers with the authorities, but left more and more clues that gradually formed a criminal profile. You now face long prison sentences.
A cinematic life
The filmmakers shouldn’t be short of curiosities. There are a few videos of Heather Morgan on YouTube in which she raps about Wall Street, crypto and hackers under the pseudonym Razzlekhan. She also wrote for several years for the business magazine “Forbes”. The “international economist” is characterized by her “fighting of fraud and cybercrime,” says the author’s biography of Morgan.
Although Lichtenstein avoided the limelight, he has established himself as CEO and founder of various start-ups as a bustling businessman.
