Arrests on both sides of the Atlantic, for a global dragnet in the cryptocurrency sector. Six people were arrested on Wednesday January 18 in the United States and Europe, the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement. In detail, one person was arrested in the United States, one in Portugal, one in Cyprus and three in Spain.
The investigations of the cyber section of the Paris prosecutor’s office have revealed the role that these men, mainly of Russian and Ukrainian nationalities, would have played in the creation and development of the commercial activity of a cryptocurrency trading platform named Bitzlato. This platform allowing the rapid conversion of cryptoactives such as bitcoins (…) into rubles is suspected of being used for the laundering of funds obtained through illegal activities (scams, sales on the darknet markets and ransomware, etc.), specifies the wooden floor.
The platform shut down
Founder and main owner of the Bitzlato platform, Anatoli Legkodimov, a 40-year-old Russian living in China, was arrested in the middle of the night in Miami, Florida, US authorities announced at a press conference.
The Bitzlato platform had a website in Russian, but also in English and was accessible to all web users, in particular to French customers, details for its part the Paris prosecutor’s office, which adds that the platform used at least one host in France. The coordinated action of the judicial and police authorities of the various countries concerned (…) has made it possible to make this service inoperative today, however, can we read in the press release.
The domain name and cryptoassets, estimated at nearly 16 million euros, were seized, according to the gendarmerie, which estimates the total transactions recorded on Blitzlato since 2018 at more than two billion dollars.
Cryptocurrencies: six people arrested in the United States and Europe, suspected of money laundering
