Cryptocurrency fraudster laundered $ 4 billion as a result of hacker attacks

The United States has filed charges against Alexander Klimenko, a citizen of Belarus and Cyprus. The man is suspected of an international money laundering operation through cyberattacks.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Klimenko controlled the illegal digital currency exchange BTC-e, the technology services company Soft-FX, and the financial company FX Open.

The prosecution alleges that through these firms, Klymenko facilitated transactions related to various types of cybercrime, including ransomware, identity theft, drug trafficking, fraud, and hacking.

BTC-e, a cryptocurrency trading platform, was seized by US law enforcement in 2017 after the arrest of its founder Alexander Vinnik in Greece. The US Department of Justice stated that the platform was used to launder funds stolen from the hack of the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, as well as for payments in transactions involving Locky, Cerber, NotPetya, WannaCry, and Spora ransomware.

The platform had a significant presence in the United States, but was not registered as a money service, did not require customer verification, and had no anti-money laundering mechanisms.

«BTC-e likely facilitated cybercriminals' transactions around the world and generated illicit proceeds from numerous computer intrusions and hacking incidents, ransomware fraud, identity theft schemes, corrupt public officials, and drug distribution networks,» the Department of Justice said.

The US authorities suspect that Vynnyk collaborated with Russian intelligence. According to the investigation, the funds that passed through BTC-e could have financed Russian security forces. In this context, it is interesting that arms dealer Viktor Bout tried to lobby for V ynnyk’s release.

The BTC-e exchange operated from 2011 to 2017. Its activities were suspended immediately after Vynnyk’s arrest. Soon after, the crypto exchange was relaunched under the name Wex. It was taken over by a Singaporean company owned by another Russian, Dmitry Vasiliev. on May 30, 2022, he was arrested in Croatia on suspicion of fraud.

As a reminder, Vinnik was arrested in 2017 in Greece on charges of money laundering and running the BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange. In early 2020, the Russian was extradited from Greece to France, where he was sentenced to five years in prison. Later, Vinnik was sent back to Greece and extradited to the United States in early August. Vinnik is currently in a US prison, facing 55 years behind bars.