‘Wall Street crocodile’: Bitcoin looting leads to rappers

It is related to the money laundering of $3.6 billion worth of bitcoins from a cyber attack. The focus is on Heather Morgan – known as the “Crocodile of Wall Street”.

Baseball cap and sunglasses Heather Morgan, nicknamed “Razelkhan,” raps somewhat awkwardly across New York’s financial district: like the so-called “Alligator of Wall Street” and “a hymn to strangers and eccentrics.” But it’s not the music that has made the 31-year-old surprisingly famous. Nor do startups and columns in business magazines like “Forbes” and “Inc.” Or business tips on their TikTok channel. On how to get rich: “Today I will tell you my secret about how to make dreams come true. I learned it from the great founders of Silicon Valley, all billionaires today: automate processes, eliminate all disruption and delegate tasks.” , as you say. in the video.

Decades of imprisonment at risk

But there is clearly another way to get rich. The FBI has now seized $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin from Heather Morgan and her husband Elijah Lichtenstein, believed to have come from a 2016 cyber attack on a cryptocurrency exchange. Both were arrested in New York two weeks ago.

Morgan says on her YouTube channel that life is not only about money, it is about quality of life and happiness. Lately, however, more about money laundering and fraud. The cryptocurrency “Bonnie and Clyde” is said to have attempted to cover up the trail of funds with shell companies, complex transactions and fake identities. They were clearly not particularly smart. They saved access to different accounts and wallets in a single file, which investigators found in the cloud. Now several decades of imprisonment threaten.

Self-portrait as a successful businesswoman

Morgan has presented herself in her videos as a successful businesswoman: “I’ve founded a number of successful software companies, the first of them being myself at the age of 23,” she says. “But I’m also a writer, I’m a rapper, I design streetwear and do a whole bunch of other things with surreal art.”

Morgan began her career as an economist for the World Bank in Cairo and Hong Kong, among others. In 2013, she moved to California and founded the Silicon Valley startup Salesfolk – a company that advises companies on how best to attract their customers through advertising emails.

But her life wasn’t always very successful, she says: “My parents didn’t have much money. They worked for the government, he was a biologist, and she was a high school librarian,” Morgan reports. “I’ve been bankrupt a few times and I’m also homeless. Money comes and goes. If you have some, that’s fine. But nothing is certain in life. Like with a pandemic – you never know what’s going to happen.” In Heather Morgan’s life, it is now likely the first long prison sentence.