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The Russian-American national who pirate crypto exchange Bitfinex and stole nearly 120,000 bitcoin said he was released from prison early thanks to the bipartisan prison reform law signed by the president Donald Trump.
Ilya Lichtenstein, 38, was sentenced in November 2024 to five years in prison after pleading guilty to a charge of money laundering conspiracy and admitting to hacking crypto assets now valued in billions of dollars.
But on Thursday evening, a message on Lichtenstein’s official X account stated: “Thanks to President Trump’s First Step Act, I was released from prison early.”
Courtroom sketch of Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein as he pleaded guilty to laundering stolen bitcoin in federal court in Washington, DC.
Artist: William Hennessey
“I remain committed to making a positive impact in cybersecurity whenever possible,” Lichtenstein’s message said.
“To the fans, thank you for everything. To the haters, I can’t wait to prove you wrong.”
A Trump administration official told CNBC Friday morning that Lichtenstein “has served a significant period of his sentence and is currently on home confinement, consistent with the statute and policies of the Bureau of Prisons.”
Lichtenstein’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on his release.
Lichtenstein’s wife, Heather Morgan – who also pleaded guilty to helping launder the stolen funds – shared Lichtenstein’s post on her own X account, saying: “The best New Year’s gift I could have received was finally bringing my husband home after 4 years apart.”
Morgan’s tweet, posted two minutes after Lichtenstein’s, included a photo of the couple smiling for a selfie.
Lichtenstein’s sentence included credit for time he had already served in custody following his arrest in 2022, more than five years after the Bitfinex hack.
A search for Lichtenstein’s name Friday morning using the federal government’s inmate locator website returned a result indicating Lichtenstein is scheduled to be released on Feb. 9.
The Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Photo booking for Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein.
Courtesy: Alexandria Adult Detention Center.
Morgan, 35, a rapper who releases music under the name “Razzlekhan” and also known as “The Crocodile of Wall Street,” was sentenced to 18 months in prison shortly after Lichtenstein received his prison term.
She entered prison in February. But on October 26, Morgan published a video of herself saying she had been released earlier than expected.
She also thanked Trump.
“Why hello Razzzlers, I missed you,” Morgan said in the clip, in which she appears in a bathtub wearing only a hair towel.
“It’s great to be back and I want to thank Papa Trump for shortening my sentence by 18 months,” she said. An email to Morgan’s manager was not immediately returned.
Asset signed the First Step Act in December 2018, during his first presidential term. The legislation aimed to reduce the size of the federal prison population through a series of reforms, including establishing a “risk and needs assessment system” that gives some inmates the option of early release and home confinement.
It is unclear whether Trump or the White House were directly involved in securing an early release for Lichtenstein or Morgan. But the announcements from the Bitcoin hacker and his wife follow a number of high-profile cybercrime-related pardons and commutations that have been granted by the crypto-friendly president since his return to power.
A day after his inauguration, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbrichtfounder of the famous dark web marketplace Silk Road.
In October, Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhaothe founder of leading crypto exchange Binance, who pleaded guilty in 2023 to enabling money laundering on the platform.
