Razzlekhan / Heather Morgan

Submission 14,608

Part of a series on Bitfinex 2016 Hack and 2022 Department of Justice Seizure. [View Related Entries]

About

Razzlekhan is the rap alias for Heather Morgan, a Turkish former Forbes contributor, CEO and artist who was arrested along with her husband in early 2022 for attempting to launder approximately $4.5 billion worth of cryptocurrency during the 2016 Bitfinex hack. Morgan's rap career and eccentric lifestyle became a widespread subject of interest following her arrest, with many criticizing her rap as bad. Morgan often refers to herself as "the crocodile of wallstreet," has synesthesia and describes the genre of her rap as "sexy horror comedy" on her website. Her alias "Razzlekhan" is described as "like Genghis Khan, but with more pizzazz."

History

Razzlekhan posted regularly to Instagram,^[3] Facebook,^[4] YouTube^[5] and TikTok^[6] since as early as April 2020, but most of her accounts were deactivated, privatized or had the videos removed after the arrest. She is the CEO of Endpass.^[14] Her Facebook^[7] and TikTok pages are still public, with her last post on the former posted on February 7th, 2022 and her last post on TikTok uploaded on February 8th (shown below). Her rap music is available on SoundCloud.^[9]

Razzlekhan also has a website, Razzlekhan.com,^[8] which offers a bio on Morgan's rap career. The homepage reads: "The infamous Crocodile of Wall Street strikes again! More fearless and more shameless than ever before, she's taking on everyone from big software companies to healthcare to finance bros." The about section reads:

"No one knows for sure where this rapper's from -- could be the North African desert, the jungles of Vietnam, or another universe. All that matters is she's here to stick up for misfits and underdogs everywhere. (We do know that she's descended from a nomadic tribe, though!)"

Morgan is also a contributing writer for Forbes^[12] and has published articles on the site since May 2018. Her first article focuses on building a startup company.^[13] Her most recent bio describes her as: "an international economist, serial entrepreneur, and investor in B2B software companies. She is an expert in persuasion, social engineering, and game theory. Morgan is the co-founder and CEO of Endpass, which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automate identity verification while proactively detecting fraud. When she's not reverse-engineering black markets to think of better ways to combat fraud and cybercrime, she enjoys rapping and designing streetwear fashion."

Bitfinex Hack and Arrest

In August 2016, an estimated $60 million worth of Bitcoin was stolen from Bitfinex in a hack.^[1]

On February 8th, 2022, the DOJ^[2] published an article announcing the arrest of wife and husband duo Heather Morgan, 31, and Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, in New York in relation to the 2016 Bitfinex hack. The two were arrested on conspiracy to launder the crypto, worth over an estimated $4.5 billion at the time of the arrest. About their laundering techniques, the piece claims:

The criminal complaint alleges that Lichtenstein and Morgan employed numerous sophisticated laundering techniques, including using fictitious identities to set up online accounts; utilizing computer programs to automate transactions, a laundering technique that allows for many transactions to take place in a short period of time; depositing the stolen funds into accounts at a variety of virtual currency exchanges and darknet markets and then withdrawing the funds, which obfuscates the trail of the transaction history by breaking up the fund flow; converting bitcoin to other forms of virtual currency, including anonymity-enhanced virtual currency (AEC), in a practice known as “chain hopping”; and using U.S.-based business accounts to legitimize their banking activity.

The arrest was reported worldwide by publications including The Guardian^[10] and The Verge,^[11] which also focused on aspects of her life and online career.

Online Presence

Music Videos

Following the arrest, people began reuploading Razzlekhan's music videos to YouTube. On February 8th, 2022, YouTuber aytch reposted the song "Versace Bedouin," described on her SoundCloud as "Razzlekhan's anthem, and an homage to her North African Bedouin heritage. It refers to both of Razzlekhan's alter-identities, the "Versace Bedouin" and the "Crocodile of Wall Street" (shown below). The video gained over 14,700 views in two days.

On February 9th, YouTuber Gerald Stanley reposted a music video for the song "Menace to Society," gaining over 5,900 views in a day (shown below).

On February 10th, YouTuber Driving the Streets of NYC posted a music video for her song "Cutthroat Country," gaining over 400 views in under a day (shown below).

TikTok Presence

Morgan's TikTok page features casual videos of the rapper living her life, including many videos of her touring around New York (popular examples shown below).