The U.S. Department of Justice has charged two Russian nationals, Sergey Ivanov and Timur Shakhmametov, for operating money laundering services that catered to cybercriminals using cryptocurrencies. The U.S. Department of State has announced rewards of $10 million each for information leading to their arrests.
As part of a coordinated international effort, U.S. authorities, in collaboration with authorities in the Netherlands, Latvia, Germany, the U.K, Europol, and multiple U.S. agencies, have seized websites associated with illicit cryptocurrency exchanges, including Cryptex.net, UAPS, PinPays, and PM2BTC. Ivanov is alleged to have conducted transactions worth over $1.15 billion in the past 11 years and has been charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and money laundering.
Shakhmametov, known online as 'JokerStash' and 'Vega,' faces the same charges as Ivanov, as well as conspiracy to commit access device fraud for his role in operating the carding website Joker's Stash, which offered data from 40 million payment cards annually. The operation, involving the U.S.
Secret Service, saw the seizure of two website domain names used to support the cryptocurrency money laundering exchange 'Cryptex.net,' where 37,500 transactions amounting to $1.4 billion were made.