In 2022, the New York Times published an article about “Bitcoin’s Bonnie and Clyde”, a couple who laundered more than 94k BTC. Amazon MGM Studios has decided to develop a movie with a script that’s based upon the aforementioned New York Times article, according to an article from Deadline.
Bitcoin’s Bonnie and Clyde were arrested in February 2022, but the Bitfinex hack where the Bitcoin came from happened all the way back in 2016.
The Bitfinex Hack
In August 2016, 119,756 BTC were stolen from Bitfinex exchange by an unknown hacker or group. The Hong Kong based cryptocurrency exchange suffered a security breach and shortly thereafter halted deposits and withdrawals of Bitcoin. At the time, this Bitcoin was worth just about $72 million US.
Nothing really came of the hack until US prosecutors arrested Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan in February 2022. The government was able to decrypt a file owned by Lichtenstein, which contained addresses and private keys associated with the stolen Bitcoin. He and Morgan, his wife, were arrested for money laundering and have since pleaded guilty to the charges.
Razzlekhan
Razzlekhan is the name for the upcoming movie, but also the moniker used by Morgan as a comedic rapper. It will focus on the actions of both Morgan and Lichtenstein, who managed to launder more than 94k of the stolen BTC and was worth over $3 billion when they were arrested.
In August 2023, Lichtenstein and Morgan both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, and Morgan also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States. Interestingly, Lichtenstein also stated that he had been the one who performed the hack itself, but he wasn’t charged with that, leading some to wonder how valid the claim was.
Brett Johnson, a cybersecurity expert who used to run a cybercrime cartel but now works for the US government, has doubts that Lichtenstein could also be the hacker. Apart from the fact that the US didn’t charge Ilya with the crime, Johnson finds it to be unlikely that someone who did such a poor job laundering the money could also have performed the hack.
Closing Thoughts
Movies recapping financial crimes and stories are becoming more commonplace over the past few years, with Dumb Money and the like. It seems likely that movies about Sam Bankman-Fried and other scandals within the cryptocurrency sector could continue to come to market over the next few years. If Bitcoin takes off to new all-time highs, there will likely be movies about different stories from its history as well, but only time will tell.
