Hacker from Ukraine helped Russians launder money through cryptocurrency

Spain has completed an investigation into the case of hacker Denis Tokarenko, better known as Denis Katana. The programmer is accused of assisting in money laundering for Russians through bitcoin. De Valencia writes about it.

According to the case file, the criminal syndicate operated in the southeastern Spanish province of Alicante. One of its members, Maksim Khakimov, recruited Katana to advise them on buying bitcoins and ways to hide their illegal profits.

The Spanish court reported that the hacker recommended that Russians use digital assets due to the «lack of government control.»

Denis Katana was born in Ukraine and has lived in Spain since 2014. He was first detained in 2018 on charges of infecting ATMs around the world with malware to automatically dispense cash. The money was taken locally by «mules» who laundered it, in particular, through bitcoin.

Even then, Katana knew Khakimov, who, through his lawyer, transferred funds to the cybercriminal for imprisonment and offered to hire killers to deal with his debts.

Katana’s cryptocurrency wallets contain more than 15,000 BTC in total. However, the judge mentioned only one of them with a balance of 5,000 BTC (€ 55 million at the time of the criminal transactions).

It should be noted that in December 2020, the Spanish police, together with Europol, detained 23 suspects of money laundering of the Russian mafia. During the searches, in addition to € 300,000 in cash, jewelry and cars, law enforcement officers found cryptocurrency wallets.