{"id":488287,"date":"2026-01-03T00:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T00:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/488287\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T00:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T00:56:11","slug":"billion-dollar-bitcoin-hacker-ilya-lichtenstein-thanks-trump-for-early-prison-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/488287\/","title":{"rendered":"Billion-dollar Bitcoin hacker Ilya Lichtenstein thanks Trump for early prison release"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Just over a year after being sentenced to five years in prison for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2024\/11\/18\/24299934\/razzlekhan-crypto-bitfinex-hack-heather-morgan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">theft of billions of dollars in Bitcoin<\/a>, hacker Ilya Lichtenstein is free. Lichtenstein announced his release in a post on X, specifically crediting Trump: \u201cThanks to President Trump\u2019s First Step Act, I have been released from prison early. I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity as soon as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">The First Step Act Lichtenstein referenced is a criminal justice reform bill passed in 2018 during the first Trump administration and expands options for early release, such as earned time credits. A Trump administration official confirmed the early release in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/01\/02\/bitcoin-hacker-ilya-lichtenstein-bitfinex-razzlekhan.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement to CNBC<\/a>, claiming that Lichtenstein \u201chas served significant time on his sentence and is currently on home confinement consistent with statute and Bureau of Prisons policies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Lichtenstein\u2019s wife, Heather Morgan, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HeatherReyhan\/status\/2006939858774929720?s=20\">replied to his announcement post<\/a> with a photo of the two of them. Morgan, who some might know as the infamous rapper \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/22924237\/razzlekhan-bitfinex-hack-laundering-bitcoin-explained-rapper-heather-morgan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Razzlekhan<\/a>\u201d or \u201cthe Crocodile of Wall Street,\u201d was also charged for the scheme to launder billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin stolen in the 2016 hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex. She was only sentenced to 18 months in prison, but was also apparently released early, a development <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HeatherReyhan\/status\/1982595636190134572?s=20\">she announced from her bathtub<\/a> in a post on X in October. Morgan and Lichtenstein weren\u2019t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/2\/8\/22923772\/doj-irs-bitfinex-hack-bitcoin-recovery-encrypted-files-razzlekhan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">arrested for the hack<\/a> until 2022. The duo have since become the subject of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2024\/11\/19\/24300651\/netflix-razzlekhan-documentary-trailer-release-date\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a Netflix docuseries<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2024\/1\/29\/24052114\/a-razzlekhan-movie-is-the-works-about-the-rapper-bitcoin-money-launderer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an upcoming film<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just over a year after being sentenced to five years in prison for the theft of billions of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":488288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7566,64,6362,50,242,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-488287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-bitcoin","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-crypto","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-tech","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115828449851108401","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}