U.S. says Russian national ran crypto exchange widely used by cybercriminals

LTC Eugene Chu
..."Chainalysis, a company that researches criminal use of cryptocurrencies, had previously claimed that Bitzlato played a major role in helping launder money for Project Terricon, which raised funds to support pro-Russia groups in Ukraine using cryptocurrency in an attempt to circumvent sanctions.

As of last year, Chainalysis found that Bizlato had laundered more than $206 million from darknet markets, $224 million from other scams and $9 million from ransomware attacks.

The Treasury Department also declared Bitzlato a “Primary Money Laundering Concern,” an extreme measure rarely used against financial institutions.

Ari Redbord, the head of legal and government affairs for the cryptocurrency analysis firm TRM labs and a former senior Treasury official, said the agency reserves that designation for particularly severe money laundering.

“If the U.S. Treasury Department designates a financial institution as a ‘Primary Money Laundering Concern,’ the goal is to isolate them,” Redbord said. “Being cut off from the U.S. financial system, not being able to transact in U.S. dollars, is essentially a death sentence.”

I am glad the DOJ got involved in resolving this! I guess that this is the latest threat to us! I read where some athletes who invested and lost money in Crypto! ventures!