The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicted two Russian nationals
Two Russian nationals are charged with laundering Bitcoin from the infamous Mt. gox hack
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicted two Russian nationals, Alexey Bilyuchenko and Aleksandr Verner, for their alleged involvement in the 2014 Mt. Gox hack. The DOJ claims that the two individuals gained unauthorized access to Mt. Gox's wallets in September 2011 and stole 647,000 BTC over a period of nearly three years. The stolen funds were then laundered. In addition to the Mt. Gox hack, the DOJ alleges that Bilyuchenko was also an operator of the defunct crypto exchange BTC-e, which has long been associated with money laundering linked to the Mt. Gox theft. Both individuals face charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, with Bilyuchenko facing an additional charge of operating an unlicensed money services business.
The unsealing of the indictments marks a significant milestone in the investigation, according to DOJ Assistant Attorney Kenneth Polite. The stolen cryptocurrency from Mt. Gox allegedly enabled Bilyuchenko to help establish BTC-e, a virtual currency exchange notorious for laundering funds for cybercriminals worldwide. The DOJ also claims that Bilyuchenko, Verner, and other unnamed co-conspirators used a New York-based bitcoin brokerage service to launder over $6.6 million, transferring more than 300,000 BTC to overseas bank accounts. The funds were reportedly sent to BTC-e and TradeHill, another now-defunct exchange. The cases related to the Mt. Gox hack have been brought by the DOJ's Southern District of New York and Northern District of California offices.
