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Cryptocurrency exchange bitzlato, better known in the Russian-speaking segment of the market, was withdrawn as part of an "international measure of application of cryptocurrency", announced the United States Department of Justice. The Russian owner of the platform was arrested for his involvement in the alleged illicit money transfer. Bitzlato said it was tampered with.
US, France Hit Cryptocurrency Exchange Bitzlato, Russian Co-founder Detained in Miami
U.S. The authorities apprehended anatoly legkodymov, a resident of China, on accusations that its crypto platform registered in Hong Kong, bitzlato, handled illicit funds worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The russian, co-founder and majority proprietor of the scholarship, Three FBI agents in Miami arrested him on Tuesday, a senior official of the US Department of Justice (doj) disclosed.
A press conference was held, Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco said officials from the Ministry of Justice and prosecutors, collaborate with the United States Department of the Treasury and the French police, They "messed up bitzlato, cryptocurrency trading based on China, notoriously for laundering darknet's criminal income" and ransomware attacks. She also stated:
Today, the Department of Justice has dealt a significant blow to the crypto crime ecosystem.
Legkodymov is accused of exploiting the stock market as a "high-tech financial platform which, in its own words, has responded to "known scammers", explained Monaco. She said Bitzlato was a "major financial resource" for Hydra, Biggest black market ever, russian-inspired, which was the month of April, last year, by German law enforcement with the support of American agencies.
As far as the Department of Justice is concerned, Hydra purchasers have financed illicit purchases from crypto accounts hosted at Bitzlato while drug vendors, Stolen financial intelligence and hacking tools sent proceeds of crime into the stock exchange accounts, together, representing $700 million in direct and indirect transfers over the 2018-2022 period.
The Deputy Attorney General also said that the operatives took part in a "coordinated disruptive campaign." This included repressive measures in several European countries and seizing Bitzlato's servers. On Wednesday at noon, the Bitzlato Internet site was replaced by a notice indicating that the service had been seized by the French authorities, according to information collected by reuters.
Crypto Exchange Bitzlato asserts that it was hacked, Stop withdrawals.
Also on Wednesday, Bitzlato operators announced on Telegram that the swap had been hacked. They told users that the withdrawals had been suspended indefinitely and told them not to send any parts to the platform until the problem was solved.
We were hacked into, some of that money has been taken out of service," he said, Noting that the attackers may have stolen a small part of the money without specifying the amount. It was also intended to ensure clients, in a second message, that their assets were not lost, by stating the following:
We guarantee repayment to all victims.
“For the sake of safety, The service has been deactivated, we ask that you do not bail out our department's wallets until the work is restored," said Bitzlato, He went on to say that his team was dealing with it. When writing, the platform is always offline.
The hack probably occurred after Tuesday the exchange announced the planned maintenance for Thursday, jan. 19, "to improve service operations and security." the review informed the users that it will stop the transactions between 5 and 9 hours from Moscow.
"we strongly recommend that you organize your work activities in accordance with the changes to avoid unpleasant situations," the platform advised customers, inform them that they are planning on deactivating the repositories, retirements and trading.
Bitzlato launched in 2016 under the name Changebot and later became a cryptocurrency exchange peer-to-peer (P2P) trading services. It lists pairs of the Russian ruble with , ETH, USDT, and other digital coins which can be bought and sold with a variety of payment methods.
Online crypto exchangers such as bitzlato are popular in Russia and in ancient Soviet space, but as crypto assets are not yet fully regulated in the region, they are often targeted by authorities in the CIS. A report recently revealed that the Belarusian judiciary has imposed a hefty fine on the operator of one such platform.
Do you expect similar transactions to take place against crypto trading platforms in the near future? Reflect on the topic in the comments section below.
