US authorities arrested a Russian cryptocurrency executive who is suspected to have exchanged crypto worth millions with drug traffickers and cyber criminals.
On January 18, 2023, the Department of Justice (DOJ) reported that Anatoly Legkodymov, 40, the majority owner of Bitzlato crypto exchange, was arrested in Miami.
The US Treasury Department has termed Anatoly’s crypto exchange as a “primary money laundering concern”, (.) (T) the action is executed in a manner to weaken the exchange and cut off its financing.
As per claims Bitzlato have exchanged over $700 million in crypto assets with Hydra, a market place which is basically used to operate all sorts of illegal activities such as smuggling, Drug dealing , and selling personal information of people.
While talking to media outlets, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said that the illicit activities have caused a “crisis of confidence in the cryptocurrency markets.”
After the action of US authorities against the owner of Bitzlato (Move this part to the end of the sentence) European and French authorities seized Bitzlato’s cryptocurrency and its computer servers to cripple the exchange.
Anatoly Legkodymov was originally living in China. Why he was in Miami is not known yet.
At the time of Ransomware attacks, hackers prefer to accept ransoms in cryptocurrencies and launder the money through exchanges and “mixers.”
Hackers launder money using cryptocurrencies and crypto exchanges and mixers.
A ‘mixer’ is a service that is used to hide an original transaction and details of the sender and receiver so that the processed transactions can not be tracked.
Bitzlato has processed over $4.5 billion worth of cryptocurrency transactions since 2018.
Data aggregator Chainalysis highlighted that Cybercriminals and hackers have received more than $1.2 billion in ransom payments in 2020 and 2021 collectively.
Ari Redbord, head of legal and governmental affairs at TRM Labs mentioned that disordering of Bitzlato is a part of a “very strategic” effort by US authorities to “go after the illicit underbelly of the crypto economy.”
TRM Labs is an intelligence firm that helps financial institutions,crypto businesses and government agencies to investigate crypto-related financial crimes.
In an interaction with CNN, Redbord said that “These types of regulatory actions send a message to the entire crypto industry: We’re still going after non-compliant exchanges no matter where they are or how large they are.”
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Steve Anderson is an Australian crypto enthusiast. He is a specialist in management and trading for over 5 years. Steve has worked as a crypto trader, he loves learning about decentralisation, understanding the true potential of the blockchain.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2023/01/21/crypto-exchange-executive-arrested-by-us-authorities/