US Urges Five Years for Mastermind of $6 Billion Crypto Heist

The mastermind of one of the biggest cryptocurrency heists ever should spend five years in prison for a money-laundering conspiracy tied to the $6 billion hack of the Bitfinex exchange, US prosecutors told a judge.

Ilya Lichtenstein, who pleaded guilty last year, should spend more time behind bars than his rapper wife and co-conspirator Heather Morgan, the government said Tuesday in a court filing. Last week, prosecutors said Morgan, who’d dubbed herself the “Crocodile of Wall Street,” should get18 months in prison.

In this courtroom sketch, attorney Sam Enzer, center, sits between Heather Morgan, left, and Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein, in federal court in New York in Feb. 2022.

Photographer: Elizabeth Williams/AP

Prosecutors said Lichtenstein fits the profile of young cyber criminals, whose online activity is “normalized in ...