Justice Department Announce International Crypto Enforcement Action

The founder of the crypto exchange Bitzlato, Anatoly Legkodymov, is indentation. According to a news conference held by the US DOJ on Wednesday. His charges with managing more than $700 million in illicit money.

According to Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco, “Overnight, the Department worked with key partners here and abroad to dismantle Bitzlato, the China-based money laundering engine that powered a high-tech axis of crypto crime, and to arrest its inventor, Russian national Anatoly Legkodymov.” “Today’s actions send a clear message: you can expect to answer for your crimes inside a United States courtroom, whether you break our laws from China or Europe or abuse our financial system from a tropical island,”

The DOJ claims that Bitzlato allowed customers to trade cryptocurrency without proving their identities. Customers were told by the exchange, based in Hong Kong, that “no selfies nor passports are necessary.” According to the government, the absence of know-your-customer processes made Bitzlato a hub for illicit activity.

Regulators from the American government have been tough on the cryptocurrency industry. One of the most well-known cryptocurrency exchanges, Coinbase, was recently fined $50 million by New York state regulators for doing insufficient background checks. According to a government filing, Coinbase hired third-party contractors to handle a backlog of more than 100,000 unreviewed transaction monitoring alerts. However, because Coinbase did not implement quality control procedures, it turned out that a large portion of the work contract needs revision. Regulators said that due to these mistakes, Coinbase failed to alert the appropriate authorities about possible instances of money laundering, drug trafficking, and CSAM-related behavior.

Longtime crypto insiders didn’t appear to be aware of Bitzlato before the DOJ’s announcement. Despite events like FTX’s bankruptcy shaking the industry. Wallets connected to Bitzlato have little over $11,000 in them, down from over $6 million at their peak. According to data of known wallets from Arkham. A crypto intelligence tool, making Bitzlato a relatively minor role in the market.

Russia Accused of Running $700 Million Crypto Scheme by the US

Cryptocurrency operation that enables criminals to conceal the $700 million worth of revenues from unlawful gambling and drug sales, a Russian national is charged with money laundering.

The founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato, Anatoly Legkodymov, was detained on Tuesday in Miami. According to a news conference held on Wednesday by the US Justice Department. According to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. Bitzlato was a “key financial resource” for the Hydra dark web market, the largest and most established of its kind.

According to a statement with the DOJ. Bitzlato processed more than $700 million in unlawful payments, including millions of dollars in ransomware profits. Legkodymov wrote on a Bitzlato internal chat that the US considered the exchange’s users “known fraudsters.”

According to Monaco. These acts demonstrate both the defendant’s claimed offenses’ extensive breadth. The law enforcement’s use of a global reach to apprehend him and his associates.

According to Chainalysis, a company that specializes in analyzing crypto transactions. Bitzlato has enabled the laundering of nearly $1 billion in cryptocurrency since 2019.

Authorities Seize the Cryptocurrency Website Bitzlato

A global coalition of law enforcement organizations purportedly running a refuge for criminals. That help them to launder money seized a cryptocurrency website based in Hong Kong and detained its founder.

On Wednesday, representatives from DOJ and the Treasury Department claimes that Bitzlato, a cryptocurrency exchange, processing more than $700 million in illegal funds without implementing an efficient anti-money laundering program and that it is aware that some accounts have part of the criminal activity.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco reported that on Tuesday night in Miami, FBI agents detained Russian national Anatoly Legkodymov. The website’s founder and principal owner after U.S. and French officials demolished Bitzlato’s digital infrastructure.

According to Monaco, “the Department of Justice has significantly damaged the crypto criminal ecosystem today.”

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the department designated Bitzlato as a “primary money laundering concern,” according to Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo after investigators determined that nearly half of Bitzlato’s known transactions between 2019 and 2021 involved illegal Russian funds or other “risky sources.”

Bizlato was particularly active in aiding illegal behavior. Still, according to Adeyemo, it is ultimately a part of a broader ecosystem of cyber criminals that have to operate freely in Russia.