The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has worked with other federal and international law enforcement agencies to charge two Russian nationals with multiple cybercrimes, including running illegal crypto exchanges.
In a new press release, the DOJ says it is charging Russian nationals Sergey Ivanov and Timur Shakhmametov with crimes ranging from facilitating stolen credit and debit card transactions to criminal money laundering using cryptocurrency.
“Ivanov allegedly founded and/or operated the Russian payment and exchange services UAPS, PinPays and PM2BTC, which provided money transfer and money laundering services directly to criminals. Analysis of the cryptocurrency blockchain revealed that between July 12, 2013 and August 10, cryptocurrency addresses linked to Ivanov’s alleged money laundering services conducted transactions totaling approximately $1.15 billion.
About 32% of all traced Bitcoin sent to these addresses came from other cryptocurrency addresses linked to criminal activity. For example, more than $158 million worth of Bitcoin flowing to Ivanov’s addresses reportedly came from fraud proceeds, more than $8.8 million represented proceeds from known ransomware payments, and approximately $4.7 million dollars come from drug markets on the darknet.
The U.S. Secret Service has received court permission to seize domains associated with the UAPS and PM2BTC websites.”
In addition to the aforementioned seizures, the Secret Service also shut down Cryptex, a Russia-based cryptocurrency laundering service that advertised its services to criminals.
Said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s criminal division,
“Cryptex promised its cybercriminal customers a safe place to launder their illegal proceeds anonymously. But the coordinated actions announced today – including the seizure of Cryptex’s domains, servers and proceeds – should put cybercriminals on notice that there are no safe places for cybercriminals online. The Criminal Division will continue to work with its domestic and international partnerships to disrupt platforms that enable cybercrime and render these platforms unprofitable.”
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Featured image: Shutterstock/Pavel Chagochkin/WindAwake
