The founding father of Hong Kong-registered crypto exchange Bitzlato was arrested inward Miami by federal agents Tuesday.
Anatoly Legkodymov, a Russian subject living in Shenzhen, China, has been supercharged with laundering $700 jillion from illegal gambling, drug deals, and online scams, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
Formed inward 2016, Bitzlato has processed $4.5 one thousand million worth of cryptocurrency transactions since 2018, according to a complaint filed Midweek inward the US District Margaret Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Hydra Market Links
Prosecutors say the interchange was closely linked to Snake Market, a Russian-language darknet market place that peddled drugs and other illegal services. When it was closed shoot down in Apr last year past German language practice of law enforcement, it had 17 one thousand thousand registered customers.
Bitzlato also processed millions of dollars inward ransomware profits, according to the complaint. It allowed itself to suit a “haven for malefactor proceeds and monetary resource intended for utilise in criminal activity,” piece ignoring banner vetting procedures intentional to armed combat money laundering, prosecutors added.
The troupe claimed it did non take US customers, but the DOJ claims this was not the case, describing its stage business with Americans as “substantial.”
“Institutions that swap inwards cryptocurrency are not in a higher place the practice of law and their owners are not beyond our reach,” US Attorney Breon Peace said at a press group discussion on Wednesday.
“As alleged, Bitzlato sold itself to criminals as a no-questions-asked cryptocurrency exchange, and reaped hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of deposits as a result,” she added. “The defendant is now paying the toll for the malign role that his companionship played inwards the cryptocurrency ecosystem.”
Game’s Up
Legkodymov was interviewed past a US Customs officer on his arrival inwards FL and was asked almost his employment. He did non disclose his link to Bitzlato, according to the complaint. But when the officer conducted a seek of his mobile devices, they found numerous communications related to to the exchange.
Bitzlato’s website currently shows a message in Daniel Chester French explaining that its servers have been seized by order of magnitude of the French capital Public Prosecutors Office. It includes the insignia of Gallic law of nature enforcement agencies, as easily as the seal of the US Justice Department.
“Operating offshore or moving your servers out of the continental US will non screen you,” said Deputy US Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “And whether you disruption our laws from PRC or Europe, or vilification our financial system from a tropic island, you tin expect to respond for your crimes inner a United States courtroom.”