The strange case of a New York couple accused of looking to launder $4.5 billion in bitcoin stolen through a 2016 hack would be the matter of a docuseries on Netflix, the streaming corporate stated Friday.
The announcement comes simply 3 days after the couple, Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan had been arrested of their decrease Big apple condominium.
The Division of Justice on the time of the arrest stated it had additionally seized greater than $3.6 billion in bitcoin that used to be a part of the alleged scheme, the largest such monetary seizure in DOJ historical past.
Netflix stated the sequence at the couple can be directed through Chris Smith, who prior to now helmed the Netflix sequence “FYRE: The Largest Celebration That By no means Took place,” in regards to the fraudulent Fyre Competition, and used to be government manufacturer of the corporate’s Covid pandemic damage hit “Tiger King.”
The deal, which comes only some days after the unique tale broke, comes amid a upward push in urge for food through Hollywood for tales about — most commonly disasters and fraud — in tech.
HBO this week ordered a chain in line with Fb known as “Doomsday System,” which is able to depict Sheryl Sandberg, performed through “The Crown” superstar Claire Foy, and Mark Zuckerberg and “chronicling the political and social minefields Fb has navigated on its relentless quest for enlargement.
It additionally comes as Hulu dropped the trailer for its imminent sequence about failed blood startup Theranos known as “The Drop Out” and Apple not too long ago dropped its trailer for WeWork-inspired sequence “WeCrashed.”
Certainly fueling Netflix’s passion is the colourful social media footprint of Morgan, a 31-year-old former Forbes.com contributor and self-described “irreverent comedic rapper” and “crocodile of Wall Side road,” whose movies of her rapping had been extensively mocked on Twitter after her arrest.
“As the worth of the stolen bitcoin soared from $71 million on the time of the hack to almost $5 billion, the couple allegedly attempted to liquidate their virtual cash through developing pretend identities and on-line accounts, and purchasing bodily gold, NFTs, and extra – all whilst investigators raced to trace the cash’s motion at the blockchain,” Netflix stated in its announcement Friday.
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Prosecutors say the couple attempted to cover the supply of bitcoin stolen within the hack of the cryptocurrency change Bitfinex in 2016 via a lot of Byzantine transactions.
Lichtenstein, 34, and Morgan stay in federal custody. They’re because of seem in U.S. District Court docket in Washington, D.C. for a listening to on whether or not they may be able to be launched on bail.
Prosecutors wish to stay them locked up pending trial in D.C.
However their protection legal professionals need them launched on bail set Tuesday in New York through every other pass judgement on, who set a $5 million bond for Lichtenstein, and $3 million for Morgan.
Considered one of their legal professionals stated Wednesday in a courtroom submitting that the couple isn’t a flight possibility as a result of they “prior to now iced over a number of of ]Morgan’s] embryos at a health center in New York in anticipation of beginning a circle of relatives in combination, as she will handiest conceive via in vitro fertilization.”
“The couple would by no means flee from the rustic on the possibility of dropping get entry to to their skill to have youngsters, which they had been discussing having this 12 months till their lives had been disrupted through their arrests on this case,” the legal professional wrote.
