Bitzlato exchange blown up as US deals strike against cryptocrimity”, arrest the owner-Exchanges
Bitzlato exchange blown up as US deals strike against cryptocrimity”, arrest the owner-Exchanges
The Bitzlato cryptocurrency exchange, better known in the Russian-speaking market segment, was shut down as part of an "international enforcement campaign for cryptocurrencies", as the US Ministry of Justice announced. The Russian owner of the platform was arrested because of his role in the alleged transmission of black money. Bitzlato claimed that it had been hacked.
USA, France attacks Bitzlato cryptocurrency exchange, Russian co -founder arrested in Miami
The US authorities have arrested Anatoly Legkodymov, a resident in China, under the accusation that his Bitzlato crypto trading platform registered in Hong Kong processed illegal funds worth millions of dollars. The Russian, co-founder and majority owner of the stock exchange, was arrested by three FBI in Miami on Tuesday, as a high-ranking official from the US Justice Ministry (DOJ) announced.
During a press conference, the deputy attorney in General Lisa Monaco said that agents and prosecutors of the Ministry of Justice, who work with the US Ministry of Finance and the French law enforcement agencies, “Bitzlato, a cryptocurrency exchange based in China, which is notorious to wash criminal income from the Darknet have ”and ransomware attacks. She also explained:
Today the Ministry of Justice has given the ecosystem of cryptoco -crime a severe blow.
Legkodymov is accused of operating the stock exchange as a "high-tech finance center, which, according to his own words, serves" well-known crooks ", explained Monaco. She also claimed that Bitzlato was a "decisive financial resource" for Hydra, the largest Darknet market with Russian roots, was shut down in April last year by the German police with the support of US authorities.
According to Doj, Hydra buyers financed illegal purchases of crypto accounts that were hosted at Bitzlato, while sellers of drugs, stolen financial information and hacking tools sent criminals on accounts on the stock exchange, which between 2018 and 2022 will be at $ 700 million of direct and indirect transfers.
The deputy attorney general also said that the participants in the operation had carried out a “coordinated fault campaign”. This included law enforcement measures in several European countries and the seizure of Bitzlatos servers. On Wednesday afternoon, the Bitzlato website was replaced by a message that said that the service had been confiscated by the French authorities, reported Reuters.
crypto exchange Bitzlato claims to have been hacked, stop payments
Also on Wednesday, the operators of Bitzlato announced on Telegram that the stock exchange had suffered a hacker attack. They informed the users that the withdrawals had been exposed to an indefinite period and asked them not to send coins to the platform until the problem has been resolved.
"Our service was chopped, part of the money was withdrawn from the service," said the stock exchange and found that the attackers could steal a small part of the money without specifying the amount. It also tried to assure the customer in a second message that their assets were not lost, and explained:
We guarantee a refund for all victims.
"We deactivated the service as a security measure. We ask you not to fill up the envelope of our service until the work is restored," repeated Bitzlato and added that his team was working on the problem. At the time of writing, the platform is still offline.
The hack probably took place after the stock exchange had announced a maintenance planned for Thursday, the 19th January 19th, "aimed to improve the operation of the service and its security". The notification informed the users that transactions between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. Moscow are set.
"We strongly recommend that you organize your work activities taking into account the changes in order to avoid unpleasant situations," the platform advised the customer and informed you that she plans to deactivate deposits, payouts and trade.
Bitzlato started in 2016 and later became a cryptocurrency exchange offer Peer-to-peer ( p2p ) trading services. It lists couples of the Russian ruble to bitcoin , eth , usdt Digital coins that can be bought and sold with a variety of payment methods.
Online crypto exchangers such as Bitzlato are popular in Russia and in the former Soviet area, but since crypto-assets are not yet fully regulated in the region, they are often targeted by authorities throughout the community of independent states. A report recently revealed that the Belarusian judiciary A imposed juicy fine Platform.
Are you expecting other similar operations against crypto trading platforms in the near future? Share your thoughts on this topic in the comment area below.
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