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Biggest Heist Ever is a true-crime documentary released on December 6, 2024, on Netflix. Directed by Chris Smith, it recounts the story of how a married Russian couple, Heather 'Razzlekhan' Morgan and Ilya 'Dutch' Lichtenstein, committed the world's greatest heist worth billions of dollars.
The Biggest Heist Ever has a runtime of 1 hour and 27 minutes, and is executive produced by Nick Bilton, P.G. Morgan, and Chris Smith. The documentary's official logline, as per Netflix, reads:
"Their crimes earned them the nickname Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde - and the story only gets weirder in this documentary about the most lucrative heist ever."
Who are the real people behind the heist shown in the Biggest Heist Ever?
According to TIME magazine, the world's greatest heist was committed by an American married couple, Heather 'Razzlekhan' Morgan and Ilya 'Dutch' Lichtenstein.
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Heather Morgan is a native of Chico, California. She is an alumni of the University of California, Davis and the American University of Cairo. Morgan began her career in the Silicon Valley with a startup named Tamatem.
Before her arrest, Morgan adopted a rap persona and became known as Razzlekhan. She started a YouTube account in April 2019 and uploaded numerous cringeworthy crypto-themed rap videos. Razzlekhan’s music video for Versace Bedouin, released in 2019, went viral after the couple's arrest in 2021.
On the other hand, Ilya 'Dutch' Lichtenstein grew up in Glenview, Illinois after his family emigrated from Russia. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and went on to launch the startup MixRank, which secured investments from the likes of Mark Cuban. However, he left the company at the end of 2016.
Nick Bilton wrote an article on the eccentric couple for Vanity Fair's September 2022 issue. He described Heather as follows to the documentary's filmmakers:
"If you're Ilya and Heather and you have this money, you're probably kind of terrified of being caught. People deal with anxiety and stress and tension differently. Some people start having panic attacks. Some people start obsessively exercising. It's steam going through you that has to come out some way. I think for Heather, the creation of Razzlekhan and the rapping was the steam valve."
How did Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein pull off the heist?
Heather and Ilya met during a tech conference in San Francisco and got married in a bizarre wedding ceremony on the West Coast in late 2021.
In 2016, the 30-something couple left their successful tech careers behind and moved to New York City. Vanity Fair reported that in the summer of 2016, the couple stole 119,754 bitcoin worth $72 million from a Hong Kong-based virtual cryptocurrency exchange called Bitfinex. Within hours of the heist, the value of bitcoin dropped by about 20%, destabilizing the crypto ecosystem.
The value of the stolen bitcoin multiplied several folds over the years. It was worth $4.5 billion in 2021 and is worth $10.8 billion in 2024.
The duo spread out their stolen cryptocurrency to various wallets and accounts by using a darknet market called AlphaBay. According to TIME, the special agent Christopher Janczewski, who appears in the documentary film, stated in his 20-page statement to the IRS:
"After being moved into accounts at AlphaBay, the stolen BTC was withdrawn, layered, and ultimately deposited into [virtual currency exchanges] around the world."
As per the publication, the FBI seized AlphaBay servers in 2017, which led investigators to Lichtenstein and Morgan, before shutting down the website. In January 2022, law enforcement officers arrived at the couple's Wall Street apartment with a search warrant. During their search, they came across currencies from other countries, hollowed-out books, and a bag of burner phones labeled as "burner phones."
The New York Times reported that Ilya and Heather were arrested in February 2022 and found guilty of money laundering in August 2023. In November 2024, Heather was sentenced to 18 months and Ilya was sentenced to 60 months in prison.
Plot summary and cast of Biggest Heist Ever
The documentary, Biggest Heist Ever, features interviews with former cyber criminals, investigators, and former friends of the couple, who earned the moniker "Bitcoin Bonnie and Clyde."
Furthermore, the documentary reveals how the couple carried out the Bitfinex hack and the events leading up to their arrest. Also, it features recreated scenes with actress Olivia Hansen as Heather Morgan, Alexander Bryan a Ilysa Lichtenstein, and Ky Fehlbaum as the agent Chris Janczewski.
Biggest Heist Ever shines a light on possible issues related to national security and Lichtenstein’s alleged ties to Russia. It also establishes a connection between Ilya's heist and his father, 'Eugene' Lichtenstein's heist, almost two decades ago. Eugene had hacked the First National Bank of Indiana and the Secret Service computer between 2005 and 2006 and turned an informant to evade serving prison time.
Viewers can watch Biggest Heist Ever on Netflix.
