FBI, Ukraine seize 9 exchange domains on money laundering allegations
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Nine digital currency exchanges allegedly aiding and abetting cybercriminals had their domains seized by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Ukrainian law enforcement.
According to a May 1 press
The FBI noted the exchanges, which offered services in both English and Russian, featured “lax” anti-money laundering measures and collected minimal KYC information or “none at all.”
The Bureau claimed these kinds of rogue, unlicenced exchanges “serve as important hubs in the cybercrime ecosystem.”
According to the agency, many of these virtual currency exchanges were “advertised on online forums dedicated to discussing criminal activity.”
“Much of the criminal activity occurring at the affected exchanges involved cyber actors responsible for ransomware, but also other scammers, and cybercriminals.”
The FBI has been involved in a number of cryptocurrency-related issues over the past few months.
Related: CFTC wins record $3.4B penalty payment in Bitcoin-related fraud case
On April 27, the FBI conducted a search of former FTX executive Ryan Salame’s home in relation to his role as one of Sam Bankman-Fried’s former top advisors.
On Feb. 3, the FBI seized 86.5 Ether (ETH) and two nonfungible tokens (NFTs) worth more than $100,000 from a reported phishing scammer. The seizure was the result of a lengthy investigation by independent blockchain sleuth ZachXBT, who first exposed the activity on Twitter in Sept. 2022.
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