Russian National And Bitcoin Exchange Charged In 21-Count Indictment

[nitpicker]

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/russian-national-and-bitcoin-exchange-charged-21-count-indictment-operating-alleged

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Northern District of California

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Russian National And Bitcoin Exchange Charged In 21-Count Indictment For Operating Alleged International Money Laundering Scheme And Allegedly Laundering Funds From Hack Of Mt. Gox

Defendant Alexander Vinnik Was Arrested in Greece to Face Charges in the United States; Bitcoin Exchange Alleged to Have Received Deposits Valued at Over $4 Billion

SAN FRANCISCO – A grand jury in the Northern District of California has indicted a Russian national and an organization he allegedly operated, BTC-e, for operating an unlicensed money service business, money laundering, and related crimes.
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The indictment describes Alexander Vinnik, 37, a Russian citizen, as the owner and operator of multiple BTC-e accounts, including administrator accounts, and also a primary beneficial owner of BTC-e’s managing shell company, Canton Business Corporation. According to the indictment, numerous withdrawals from BTC-e administrator accounts went directly to Vinnik’s personal bank accounts. The indictment further alleges that proceeds from well-known hacks and thefts from bitcoin exchanges were funded through a BTC-e administrator account associated with Vinnik. Vinnik was arrested in Greece on July 25.

According to the indictment unsealed today, BTC-e, founded in 2011, was one of the world’s largest and most widely used digital currency exchanges. The indictment alleges that BTC-e allowed its users to trade in the digital currency “Bitcoin” with high levels of anonymity. The indictment alleges that although Bitcoin has known legitimate uses, the virtual currency, like cash, can be used to facilitate illicit transactions and to launder criminal proceeds. According to the indictment, since its inception, Vinnik and others developed a customer base for BTC-e that was heavily reliant on criminals, including by not requiring users to validate their identity, obscuring and anonymizing transactions and source of funds, and by lacking any anti-money laundering processes. The indictment alleges BTC-e was operated to facilitate transactions for cybercriminals worldwide and received the criminal proceeds of numerous computer intrusions and hacking incidents, ransomware scams, identity theft schemes, corrupt public officials, and narcotics distribution rings. Thus, the indictment alleges, BTC-e was used to facilitate crimes ranging from computer hacking, to fraud, identity theft, tax refund fraud schemes, public corruption, and drug trafficking. The investigation has revealed that BTC-e received more than $4 billion worth of bitcoin over the course of its operation.

As to Vinnik, the indictment alleges that he received funds from the infamous computer intrusion or “hack” of Mt. Gox – an earlier digital currency exchange that eventually failed, in part due to losses attributable to hacking. The indictment alleges that Vinnik obtained funds from the hack of Mt. Gox and laundered those funds through various online exchanges, including his own BTC-e and a now defunct digital currency exchange, Tradehill, based in San Francisco, California. The indictment alleges that by moving funds through BTC-e, Vinnik sought to conceal and disguise his connection with the proceeds from the hacking of Mt. Gox and the resulting investigation.

As for defendant BTC-e, the indictment alleges that, despite doing substantial business in the United States, BTC-e was not registered as a money services business with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, had no anti-money laundering process, no system for appropriate “know your customer” or “KYC” verification, and no anti-money laundering program as required by federal law. According to the company’s website, BTC-e is located in Bulgaria but organized or otherwise subject to the laws of Cyprus. The exchange allegedly maintains a base of operations in the Seychelles Islands and its web domains are registered to shell companies in, among other places, Singapore, the British Virgin Islands, France, and New Zealand.
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FinCEN today assessed a $110 million civil money penalty against BTC-e for willfully violating U.S. anti-money laundering (AML) laws. Alexander Vinnik was assessed $12 million for his role in the violations.
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