Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This TikTok Star Stole Billions - The Razzlekhan and Ilya Lichtenstein story

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

TikToker Heather Morgan aka Razzlekhan and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein stole $4.3 billion dollars in bitcoin from a bitcoin exchange.

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this guy who calls himself Dutch. And Dutch also works in tech and he's supposedly some kind of genius. And one day, back in 2016, Dutch decides to exploit a security flaw and hack a Bitcoin exchange. Oh, and Dutch doesn't just steal a little bit of money. Bro ends up stealing over 119,000 Bitcoin, which at this time is worth $72 million. Damn. And this heist is all over the news. It is a huge deal.

fact, this is such a big deal. When word gets out, it immediately makes the trading price of Bitcoin drop 20% overnight. And of course, with all this noise, this gets the attention of Homeland Security and the IRS, and they start investigating. Now Dutch, he knows he can't go on a big spending spree. It'll tip off the IRS. So he moves the Bitcoin to a different platform on the dark web. And then he just chills and waits. He doesn't touch it. And about a year goes by, and the 72 million in Bitcoin is still sitting there. So he decides, all right, it's time to launder this shit. And to launder it, he enlists the help of his romantic partner and rapper extraordinaire, Razzle.

I blame love stories, relationships. And so, Razel and Dutch, they get to work laundering this money, and they split up the Bitcoin into tiny amounts, and they move it to thousands of different wallets using fake identities. They even create a fake company with fake employees. Like the whole thing gets pretty elaborate. But here's what's really crazy. During all this, the value of crypto keeps rising.

And over the next few years, the 72 million in Bitcoin becomes worth $4.5 billion. $4.5 billion. $4.5 billion. Oh, my God. That makes Dutch's hack not just the biggest Bitcoin heist, but the biggest heist ever in U.S. history. Now, considering the amount they had stolen, Dutch and Razzle, they're not spending a big chunk of it. Like, they're not out buying Bentley's and tigers and stuff like that. No, they took some nice trips, but nothing too over the top.

But during all this, Razzle starts getting more and more into social media. And she starts a TikTok account and a YouTube, and she starts building a following and putting herself online a lot more. Guilty, guilty, guilty. I'm motherfucking filthy. And this is where she really gets into. her rap career. Mother fucking crocodile of Wall Street, isn't boots on my feet. Now, let me be the first to say, home girls got bars. I'm a motherfuckin' bad bitch.

Amitch, you annoying like that itch. No, I'm serious, she's got bars. Now apparently she starts using some of this money they stole to produce these music videos, which people rag on, but I think they're funny as hell. Like, maybe that's just my sense of humor. The more they hate, the more I work. Everybody say they're lit, but all they do is showing you. But anyway, eventually, Razel and Dutch get married.

Good for them. And then they take a trip from the U.S. over to the Ukraine. And there, they stay for about a month because they allegedly plan to flee there if the feds ever catch on to their multi-billion dollar Bitcoin heist. Apparently, the Ukraine doesn't extradite to the U.S., so if they get caught, they won't be sent back to the states.

And so, Razel and Dutch, they get fake Ukrainian passports and SIM cards and bank accounts, and they set this whole thing up. And it seems like this plan might work, and that they've gotten away with stealing $4.5 billion in Bitcoin. Until... Here's where things start to go south. One day, Razel buys a Walmart gift card. Now, this gift card is going to be their downfall.

So one of the ways Razel and Dutch laundered the Bitcoin was they would exchange it for prepaid gift cards. And so they get a bunch of these gifts. gift cards and one of those cards is this $500 Walmart gift card. And when Razel uses it, the purchase ends up being linked to Dutch's IP address. Now at this point in the story, the feds have been watching them because they're really suspicious. And through Dutch's IP address, they're able to find some other accounts tied to him and blah, blah, blah, boring crypto stuff. And that eventually leads them to a bunch of the stolen Bitcoin. Plus, the things that Razel bought

using that Walmart gift card also end up being delivered to her and Dutch's apartment. And so now feds have their home address. And so, boom, they swoop in and raid their apartment and then bam, they arrest them. Here's Razel's mugshot. And here's Dutch's mugshot. Tuesday, police in New York arrested a husband and wife couple that allegedly tried to launder just that amount, which seems to be connected to a 2016 hack. And in their apartment, agents find over $40,000 in cash, like 50 different computers and tablets and burner phones and jump drives, and ultimately they're able to seize most of the stolen Bitcoin. The Department of Justice has seized over $3.6 billion worth of that stolen cryptocurrency.

This is the largest seizure of cryptocurrency ever by U.S. law enforcement. And so they both take a plea deal, and Dutch gets sentenced to five years in prison, while Razel gets sentenced to 18 months in prison. But here's where it gets interesting. As of right now, as of me shooting this video, Razel is on house arrest, and she's waiting on her prison sentence to start. But she's still doing the social media thing, like making videos, uploading to TikTok. Want to know a little handy trick if you're ever on house arrest and you have an ankle monitor? And I don't know if she needs money now or what, but she has a cameo account.

Which if you don't know what a cameo account is, it's a site where you can pay someone. anonymously to give you shoutouts or basically say whatever you want. So I thought we would have her say a little something. This is for my Razzler Ray. He is very handsome, has big muscles, and is totally not short. I actually feel bad for tricking her into saying that. Like she didn't know it was me. She seemed very nice. Anyway, of course, while she's still waiting for her prison sentence to start, she's still out there rapping and making music videos. Amazing.

While Dutch, on the other hand, he doesn't seem to be having as good a time as her. He's already imprisoned. And recently, he released a video himself, and to his credit, he does seem remorseful for what he's done. Most of what you've heard about me is true. I hacked BitFinex. I stole and laundered thousands of Bitcoin. And I am so sorry for everything. For a long time, I made one bad selfish decision after another.

Now let me just say this. Like don't commit any crimes, but if you do decide to commit crimes and you get caught, this is the way to handle it. You serve your time and you take responsibility for the mistakes you've made. Dutch is doing it right. Good for him. So shout out to him and razzle. Good luck to them both.