Russian national who provided money laundering as a service, pleads guilty in US

Tweet A Russian national, Maksim Boiko, who was accused of operating a money laundering as a service (“MLaaS“) business, pleaded guilty in Pittsburg today, to one count of conspiracy to launder money. In this case, the MLaaS involved opening personal and company bank accounts to receive and then move money for criminals and opening Bitcoin […]

FinCEN assesses US$60 million penalty against owner of Bitcoin mixer / tumbler service

Tweet US$60 million penalty On October 19, 2020, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN“) assessed a US$60 million penalty (here) against Larry Dean Harmon, the owner of two Bitcoin mixing and anonymizing services called Helix and Coin Ninja LLC. FinCEN found that the two entities were operating as unregistered money services businesses (“MSB“) which exchanged […]

Six eBay workers charged with cyberstalking for conduct that included online hate against a woman, working on false police report and witness tampering

Tweet The US Department of Justice has charged six former workers of eBay Inc. with cyberstalking and witness tampering over an online harassment campaign they are alleged to have launched against a woman blogger in Massachusetts. The federal crime of cyberbullying involves, among other things, harassing a person by means of a computer that causes […]

Interpol issues warning that Bitcoin ransomware cyberattacks targeting hospitals could lead directly to deaths in covid-19

Tweet Interpol has released a warning that, during the Covid-19 pandemic, ransomware cybersecurity attacks against hospitals and other institutions and research departments, are expected to increase. The way ransomware attacks work is that hackers infiltrate and take exclusive control over computer systems, locking out the administrators, and promise to relinquish control of the computer systems […]

Bitcoin SIM swapper charged with stealing $50 million, arrested in British Columbia

Tweet $50 Million SIM-swapped A man from Montreal, Samy Bensaci, who allegedly stole US$50 million in Bitcoin from US residents, was arrested in Victoria, British Columbia, and removed to Ontario for prosecution, where he has since been released on bail, reported La Presse today. The theft of $50 million happened during 2018 and 2019, according […]

The Canadian: “[D]ude, we’re criminal drug dealers – what line shouldn’t we cross?” Explaining the Silk Road Money Laundering Case

Tweet 4th Anniversary of Silk Road founder’s Sentencing The end of May marked the 4th Anniversary of the sentencing of Ross Ulbricht, aka Dread Pirate Roberts, the founder of the now-defunct darknet marketplace website based in California, called Silk Road that operated on TOR, which brokered sales of illegal goods and services, including narcotics like […]

Several agencies take down Bitcoin mixing & anonymizing service

Tweet Working with Europol, several law enforcement agencies shut down a Bitcoin mixing and anonymizing service called Bestmixer, which was one of the largest mixing services for digital currencies. Mixing and anonymizing services or anonymizing exchanges process digital currencies on behalf of customers in order to make it difficult to trace the digital currencies. The […]

Oxymonster sentenced to 20 years for money laundering and dark net drug sales

Tweet A foreign national from France, known on the dark net as OxyMonster, was sentenced to 20 years jail in the US for selling drugs such as fentanyl, online, and laundering the proceeds of crime. Gal Vallerius, 36, pleaded guilty to drug distribution and money laundering in Miami in June for selling cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, oxycodone […]

7 Russian foreign nationals indicted in US for alleged money laundering and hacking of Canadian / US agencies

Tweet The Department of Justice announced the indictment of 7 Russian foreign nationals in Pennsylvania for their roles in an alleged hacking of anti-doping sports agencies, including one in Canada called the Canadian Centre for Ethics and Sports. According to the indictment, the indicted persons hacked into computers for several years to allegedly influence sports […]

US indicts two Chinese foreign nationals for operating criminal enterprise, international money laundering and selling fentanyl

Tweet The US Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, announced the unsealing of a 43-count indictment against two foreign nationals from China for allegedly manufacturing, advertising, selling and shipping fentanyl, carfentanil and other deadly drugs to several countries including the US and Canada, which resulted in the deaths of American citizens. They are also charged with operating […]