Crypto Cybercriminals Launder $1Billion

The US Department of Justice alongside other federal and international law enforcement agencies have successfully brought charges against a Russian national, named Ivanov, who was involved in selling stolen credit cards via crypto payment processors.

Ivanov developed UAPS, PinPays and PM2BTC. All crypto payment processing platforms used for money laundering. 

The US Secret service will seize the domains for UAPS and PM2BTC.

Blockchain investigations revealed crypto wallets associated with these money laundering platforms was responsible for laundering $1.15Billion from July 2013 to August 2024.

The investigations allege the following:

- $158million of all Bitcoin transferred to Ivanov represented fraudulent transactions.

- $8.8million where from known payments from ransomware

- $4.7million came directly from drug markets on the darkweb.

In a separate investigation the US secret service will seize and take control of two crypto exchanges run by Cryptex. These crypto exchanges directly advertised themselves to cybercriminals and offered full anonymity by not fulfilling any Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols.

Cryptex saw 37,500 transactions take place on its exchanges, with a total of 62,586BTC or $1.4Billion at the time of the transactions.


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