More than a decade after the defunct Mt Gox cryptocurrency exchange was hacked, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had identified and charged two men with stealing customer funds and the exchange’s private keys. .
Two Russians, 43-year-old Alexei Bilyuchenko and 29-year-old Alexander Werner, have been charged with conspiring to launder 647,000 bitcoins in a cryptocurrency heist worth about $500 million today. rice field.
In an unsealed indictment, the Justice Department said Bilyuchenko and Varner stole millions of dollars in cryptocurrency from Tokyo-based Mt.Gox, then the world’s largest bitcoin exchange, since 2011. claims to be.
Mt.Gox stored customer-held bitcoins in cryptocurrency wallets and the corresponding private keys used to authorize transfers from the wallets on servers in Japan.
From September 2011 to 2014, Bilyuchenko, Varner, and co-conspirators siphoned bitcoin from Mt. Gox wallets and into wallets they controlled on other cryptocurrency exchanges. I have a suspicion.
In February 2014, Mt. Gov announced that it had suffered a security breach and lost a large amount of cryptocurrency. Mt.Gox filed for bankruptcy shortly after.
Ismail J. Ramsey said, “Over the years, Bilyuchenko and his co-conspirators have managed to steal billions of dollars from criminals around the world, including computer hackers, ransomware attackers, drug cartels, and corrupt officials. It is said to have operated a digital currency exchange that enabled laundering.” , US Attorney for the Northern District of California.
Only about 200,000 bitcoins were recovered from Mt Gox.
The Justice Department also indicted Bilyuchenko for operating an illegal BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange with others since 2011.
Google researchers say BTC-e may be involved in 95% of tracked ransomware payments until it was shut down by authorities in mid-2017.
According to Kenneth A. Polite, Jr., Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, BTC-e “laundered money for cybercriminals around the world.” Mr. Bilyuchenko and Mr. Varner are nominated by the U.S. Department of Justice, but charges have been filed. in case of absenceboth are believed to be in Russia and are unlikely to appear in US courts any time soon.
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