Russian regulation enforcement detained virtually 100 suspects linked to the Cryptex cryptocurrency trade, the UAPS nameless fee service, and 33 different on-line providers and platforms used to make unlawful funds and promote stolen credentials.
Following 148 raids, 96 people have been arrested and charged with organizing and taking part in a felony group, illegal entry to pc data, unlawful fee processing, and unlawful banking actions.
“According to investigators, in 2013, defendants, possessing knowledge in the field of banking, created a criminal community to commit crimes and personal enrichment,” in accordance with a press launch issued by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (ICR), the main federal investigating authority in Russia.
“The accomplices carried out illegal activities in exchanging currencies and cryptocurrencies, delivering and accepting cash, and selling bank cards and personal accounts. The main clients of these services were cybercriminals and hackers who used them to legalize their criminal income.”
Ministry of Inner Affairs Irina Volk informed Interfax that “the defendants issued bank cards and provided access to transactions through a personal online account.”
Russian investigators discovered that in 2023 alone, the felony community’s providers processed over 112 billion rubles (simply over $1.1 billion), producing 3.7 billion rubles (round $38.7 million) in illicit earnings for these concerned.
Based on ICR spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko, belongings seized throughout this motion embody over 1.5 billion rubles, Robinson helicopters, luxurious automobiles (together with Bentley, Rolls Royce, Porsche, and Tesla Cybertruck automobiles), boats, and snowmobiles.
Cryptex founder sanctioned by the U.S. was additionally detained
As sources in Russian Regulation enforcement companies informed Interfax, one of many key suspects arrested on this week’s motion is Russian cash launderer Sergey Ivanov (additionally recognized by his ‘Taleon’ on-line deal with), who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Division’s Workplace of Overseas Property Management (OFAC) final week.
The Treasury Division believes that Ivanov’s UAPS, PinPays, and PM2BTC providers helped course of a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} for ransomware actors, darknet market distributors, preliminary entry brokers, and different risk actors during the last twenty years.
Ivanov and his affiliate Timur Shakhmametov (aka JokerStash and Vega) have been additionally charged by the Justice Division with cash laundering, financial institution fraud, and working a number of web sites that promote stolen bank card data and private knowledge.
Based on the U.S. DOJ, Shakhmametov was a Joker’s Stash operator, one of many largest on-line carding markets that made income of as much as $1 billion between 2014 and 2021, when it was shut down.
The U.S. Division of State now additionally provides a reward of as much as $11 million by way of its Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program for data that would assist arrest or convict Ivanov and Timur Shakhmametov.
Final week, Dutch authorities seized PM2BTC and Cryptex servers and over $7 million in cryptocurrency, whereas German regulation enforcement seized 47 cryptocurrency trade platforms used to launder cash for cybercriminals, together with ransomware gangs.
