US authorities accuse two Russians of stealing more than 600,000 bitcoins

The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted two Russian citizens for hacking into the Mt. Gox cryptocurrency exchange and laundering 647,000 bitcoins.

In a statement, the department said that 43-year-old Alexei Bilyuchenko and 29-year-old Alexander Werner were charged with conspiracy to launder bitcoins as a result of the 2014 Mt. Gox hack.

«For years, Bilyuchenko and his co-conspirators allegedly operated a digital currency exchange that enabled billions of dollars to be laundered to criminals around the world, including computer hackers, ransomware creators, drug gangs and corrupt government officials,» said prosecutor Ismail Ramsey.

Bilyuchenko is also accused of conspiring with Oleksandr Vynnyk to run the BTC-e crypto exchange from 2011 to 2017.

Vinnik is currently under arrest in the United States on charges of laundering up to $ 9 billion through BTC-e. Recently, it became known that Vinnik is trying to get him included in any prisoner exchange between Moscow and Washington.

Mt. Gox was once the world’s largest platform in terms of bitcoin sales, accounting for about 90% of the total trading volume of the first cryptocurrency. In April 2014, the exchange filed for liquidation due to the loss of 850,000 BTC due to a hacker attack. The exchange’s bankruptcy proceedings are still ongoing. Only recently, the crypto exchange started paying out to its customers.