Feds Bust Russian Who Ran Bitzlato Crypto Exchange Which Aided Ransomware Attacks
600+ police orgs can access money transfer data, CERT-UA links attack on Ukrinform to Sandworm, Mailchimp was hacked again, Royal Mail restarts parcel exports, Sophos lays off 450, much more
Authorities arrested Russian citizen Anatoly Legkodymov in Miami for running a cryptocurrency exchange, Hong Kong-based Bitzlato, which fueled darknet marketplaces to the tune of over $700 million in direct and indirect illegal transfers between 2018 and 2022 and charged him with evading U.S. money-laundering safeguards.
Lisa O. Monaco, the deputy attorney general, said Bitzlato’s operations were connected to the operations of the $5.2 billion Hydra Market, which accounted for an estimated 80 percent of all cryptocurrency transactions on the darknet before the department shut it down in April. In addition, investigators were able to track about $15 million obtained from ransomware attacks that were laundered through Bitzlato.
In connection with the investigation, five other men of Russian and Ukrainian nationalities were arre…
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