The National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, part of the newly formed U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), has announced its first enforcement effort with the arrest of Anatoly Legkodymov on January 18, 2022 in Miami, Florida.
Regkodimov, a Russian national and allegedly living in Shenzhen, China, operates Bitzrat, an illegal cryptocurrency exchange operating on the dark web, based in China and registered in Hong Kong. accused of being
Together with French authorities, Europol, and partners in Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Cyprus, the DOJ’s national cryptocurrency enforcement team seized Btzlato’s servers and “dismantled them. [its] Anatoly Legkodimov was charged with “unauthorized money transfers.”
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Bitzrat “facilitated the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars of illicit funds, fueled darknet markets and laundered the proceeds of ransomware attacks.”
According to the DoJ, the crypto exchange was used to facilitate up to $700 million in transactions between 2018 and 2022 on Hydra, a dark web marketplace that shut down in April 2022.
“Together, Hydra and Bitzlato have formed the high-tech axis of cryptocrime,” said Monaco.
The Department of Justice also claims that Bitzlato received more than $15 million in ransomware proceeds. It is a “money launderer of convertible cryptocurrencies (CVC) by facilitating the illicit trade of ransomware actors operating in Russia, including Conti, a ransomware-as-a-service group with ties to the Russian government. He played an important role in the ring,” said the U.S. Treasury Department. Added Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
“For those who still believe that cryptocurrencies allow them to hide from the law, this indictment should put that illusion to rest,” warned U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace.
