Former BTC-e operator Alexander Vinnik pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering

2024-05-04 08:09:57

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ChainCatcher News: The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Alexander Vinnik, one of the operators behind BTC-e, pleaded guilty on Friday to charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The Department of Justice stated that Vinnik was an operator of BTC-e from 2011 to 2017, during which the exchange processed over 1 million users and transactions exceeding $9 billion.
BTC-e was linked to the hack of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, which was involved in laundering 300,000 bitcoins. BTC-e was shut down in July 2017, at which time Vinnik was arrested for the first time.

The Department of Justice added that BTC-e was not registered as a money services business in the U.S., did not implement any KYC or anti-money laundering rules, and did not collect any customer data. Additionally, Vinnik used shell companies to handle BTC-e's fiat currency exchanges.

The press release stated that the exchange did indeed obtain funds from criminal activities, including ransomware attacks, hacks, and other schemes, with Vinnik being directly responsible for approximately $121 million in losses.

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