The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has pressed charges against two Russian individuals regarding planting the 2014 cyber theft of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox.
According to recently unsealed indictments, Alexey Bilyuchenko, 43, and Aleksandr Verner, 29, have been accused of collaborating to launder approximately 647,000 bitcoins stolen between September 2011 and at least May 2014 through unauthorized access to a server containing crypto wallets utilized by Mt. Gox customers.
Details about the hack
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. stated, “Commencing in 2011, Bilyuchenko and Verner illicitly obtained a substantial amount of cryptocurrency from Mt. Gox, thereby contributing to the eventual financial collapse of the exchange.
Allegedly, utilizing the unlawfully acquired profits from Mt. Gox, Bilyuchenko proceeded to assist in the establishment of the infamous BTC-e virtual currency exchange, which engaged in the laundering of funds for cybercriminals on a global scale.”
Source: Japan Times
Additionally, it is claimed that Bilyuchenko and Verner conducted significant wire transfers into diverse offshore bank accounts between March 2012 and around April 2013, effectively laundering over 300,000 of the pilfered digital assets by utilizing an unidentified Bitcoin brokerage service located in New York.
The BTC-e exchange, established by Bilyuchenko in 2011 in collaboration with Alexander Vinnik and others using the stolen cryptocurrency from Mt. Gox was closed down by law enforcement in 2017. Prior to its shutdown, it served as one of the primary channels through which cybercriminals converted the profits from their illegal activities.
Most of the currency was kept in cold storage wallets, then how did they leave? (Source: Cointelegraph)
Vinnik was extradited from Greece to the U.S. last August but has since sought to be included in a possible exchange of prisoners between the U.S. and Russia, as the Wall Street Journal reported.
The DoJ stated, “BTC-e catered to more than one million users worldwide, facilitating the movement of millions of bitcoins through deposits and withdrawals and processing transactions worth billions of dollars.”
“BTC-e received illicit funds from numerous instances of computer breaches and hacking, ransomware attacks, identity theft schemes, corrupt public officials, and narcotics distribution networks.”
What could be the result?
If convicted, the money laundering charges against the duo could result in a maximum sentence of 20 years. Additionally, Bilyuchenko could potentially face an additional 25-year term for operating an unlicensed money services business.
Following the theft, Mt. Gox, which was the largest cryptocurrency exchange at the time, collapsed and declared bankruptcy in February 2014. Mark Karpelès, the CEO of the exchange, was considered a primary suspect and was arrested in Japan in August 2015 on charges of fraud and embezzlement.
Karpelès was subsequently found guilty of data manipulation by the Tokyo District Court in 2019 and received a suspended prison sentence of 2.5 years. However, he was acquitted of the embezzlement charges.
Source: DOJ
The final brushstroke
Committing crimes, being at peace, and then forgetting them? This is going to work only sometimes. Year-long crimes are investigated and heard by authorities. They work for the betterment of this digital world. If criminals are evolving their tactics, then opposers are too. This gives us the hope that crimes are countable, if not today, then some other day.
PureVPN
June 14, 2023
11 months ago
