Ukraine arrests gang who ran 20 crypto-exchanges and laundered money for ransomw

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

Law enforcement in Ukraine has announced today the arrest of a cybercrime gang who ran 20 cryptocurrency exchanges where they laundered more than $42 million in funds for criminal groups.

The group, which authorities said had three members, has been operating from Ukraine's Poltava region since 2018. According to Ukrainian officials, the group has advertised its services on underground criminal forums, where they offered to convert cryptocurrency from criminal activities into fiat (real-world) currency for other groups, helping criminals launder their ill-gotten profits.

Now we understand how it is easy for those ransomware gang to convert their loot. And probably this is one reason why there are a lot of ransomware suddenly popping up to victimized unsuspecting victims because those scammers know that it will be easy for them to cash out to fiat through this crypto exchange run by another group of criminals.

It is interesting to note that according to this report, there is a Binance project, called "Bulletproof Exchanger," which aid in the arrest of those criminal gang.

"We kept running into exchangers like these in our day to day investigative work and historically rogue cashout points have played an important role in the underground criminal economy (i.e. BTC-E), which is why we decided to devote research efforts to study this problem," it said.

The article though didn't name the 20 exchanges that supposedly run by these groups. It will be interesting to see the names.

It's good to see that those criminals are being taken one by one and which the data in one, the obvious next target should be the ransomware gang itself.

What can you say about Binance pet project though?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ukraine-arrests-gang-who-ran-20-crypto-exchanges-and-laundered-money-for-ransomware-gangs/

[kryptqnick]

I've read an article about this today. Ukrainian authorities cooperated with Binance and indeed arrested 3 people who have spent 42 million dollars on their operations over 2 years. The report says that the gang provided services to those wishing to launder money, so it's not necessarily about ransomware money. I also don't see the info about 20 exchanges in the report, but I did find another credible source that mentions the exchanges. Judging by the info about BTC-e exchange, I think the 20 exchanges mentioned are also like this. I mean that they are local, not your typical international crypto exchanges, nothing a typical crypto user would find familiar. To see local exchanges which Ukrainians use, you can go to Bestchange.com to get the general idea. I hope the illegal exchanges will soon be closed, and I'm proud of my country for this successful operation.

[MusaMohamed]

Who or group can run 20 exchanges concurrently? If they do not run multi scam exchanges, they won't be able to have enough resources to do so. Is it a real news or only a FUD to force Bitcoin down again, at the right time with strong resistant price at $13k, bad news was released?

[Lucius]

If we assume that everything in the article is correct, then this is good news - and it is also good news that there are still quite clumsy hackers who manage to reach tens of millions of dollars and do not know how to properly protect their identity. Instead of enjoying in some exotic destination far from the reach of any justice, as we can see in the photo in the article, these three geniuses kissed the floor in their luxurious apartment.

Who or group can run 20 exchanges concurrently?

It may not be about some exchanges known to the public, but those that acted as the article says underground and offered services on the black market.

What can you say about Binance pet project though?

Personally, I didn’t know Binance had such a project, but I welcome any initiative that tries to detect and catch bad people. Some may think twice before doing things like this - it's just a matter of each country individually how to punish such criminals appropriately - in my opinion at least 10 years in prison and confiscation of all illegally acquired property.

[Baofeng]

I haven't heard of Binance "The Bulletproof Exchanger Project". But everyone can check it out here,

https://www.binance.com/en/blog/421499824684900882/The-Bulletproof-Exchanger-Project-How-Binance-Helped-Take-Down-a-Cybercriminal-Group-Laundering-$42M

It's so easy to maintain 20 crypto exchanges if it looks like this:



So it seems that Binance is doing some sniffing as well to identify these so called Bulletproof Exchangers and with the collaboration of TRM Labs, a blockchain analysis company was able to identify and track the criminal networks and with the help of local authorities, in this case Ukrainian police was able to take this criminal syndicate.

[rexxarofmoknathal]

I've read an article about this today. Ukrainian authorities cooperated with Binance and indeed arrested 3 people who have spent 42 million dollars on their operations over 2 years. The report says that the gang provided services to those wishing to launder money, so it's not necessarily about ransomware money. I also don't see the info about 20 exchanges in the report, but I did find another credible source that mentions the exchanges. Judging by the info about BTC-e exchange, I think the 20 exchanges mentioned are also like this. I mean that they are local, not your typical international crypto exchanges, nothing a typical crypto user would find familiar. To see local exchanges which Ukrainians use, you can go to Bestchange.com to get the general idea. I hope the illegal exchanges will soon be closed, and I'm proud of my country for this successful operation.

At least the e-exchanges are not the main stream ones. The fact that Binance played an active role against this type of fraudulence speaks for itself - Bianance will not tolerate such behaviour, and in fact no e-exchange should either.

It is interesting though that the law just managed to catch the gang given their dubious activities for nearly 2 years 

[Argoo]

Who or group can run 20 exchanges concurrently? If they do not run multi scam exchanges, they won't be able to have enough resources to do so. Is it a real news or only a FUD to force Bitcoin down again, at the right time with strong resistant price at $13k, bad news was released?

Apparently, the information about 20 exchanges involved in this crime scandal is too exaggerated. However, it is pleasant to see not the first successful operation of law enforcement agencies in Ukraine to combat cybercrime, which are associated with the use of cryptocurrency for illegal purposes. Moreover, as we can see, close cooperation has been established with international cryptocurrency exchanges, and the best of them. Such cooperation is the key to a successful fight against hacking, fraud and other crimes, where participants in the cryptocurrency market become victims.

[dothebeats]

Binance's initiative to bring these other shady exchanges and possible money laundering schemes down is actually a good thing. In collaboration with local governments, they are doing everyone a favor to eliminate those that use cryptocurrencies to further their illegal schemes and tarnish the name of the said tech. Taint analysis of blockchain used in this sort of preventing criminal activities and catching criminals is one I approve mostly of, though can easily be used in spying activities if the tech falls on the wrong hands.

On a side note, Binance doing some investigative work to bring down other fraud exchanges is also (somehow) inviting people to try their platform one way or another, since they are already involved in busting illegal activities which might make people trust Binance more since they are posing as one of the good guys in the industry.

[Wexnident]

Where was ransomware included though? Other than that, Binance is welcome to run their project, especially since it aims to counter these malicious groups that basically put a negative bias to the name of Bitcoin. Not to mention that with time, said groups would probably improve and remove traces from their scams, rooting them up early on could prove to be quite helpful.

Who or group can run 20 exchanges concurrently? If they do not run multi scam exchanges, they won't be able to have enough resources to do so. Is it a real news or only a FUD to force Bitcoin down again, at the right time with strong resistant price at $13k, bad news was released?

It's most likely real. Binance was involved, and some investigation by other exchange could easily reveal whether it was true or not, especially since officials of Ukraine were personally involved in the arrest, it's not like they can put false charges for them now can they? Plus, if they had the skill, making everything automated or at least semi should prove to be easy. They probably started it up way back 2018, and officially launched it by that year.

[Sadlife]

It's good, how criminal acts committed in Cryptocurrency can be traced and put behind bars those people who commits unlawful activities. These will boost the reputation of Cryptocurrency as a whole, and scare criminals from doing money laundering and tax evasion, which is i think good for mass adoption.

[AjithBtc]

The group has got a big plan, running 20 cryptocurrency exchanges and laundering money out of it. A big step forward arresting the gang, and this will surely help the cryptocurrency users to stay secure and not go behind any untrusted platforms for the cryptocurrency related needs. These incidents were good in one way, as people get a strength that hackers can be caught and the stolen funds can be recovered. On the other side, it also creates panic among people not to invest or use cryptocurrencies.

[hatshepsut93]

When I just got into Bitcoin, for the first few months I used to sell my coins on those exchanges from Bestchange. Luickily I soon found the proper crypto trading platform, which operates legally and has much better fees than those sketchy exchange services. And not only they are criminal, a lot of them are also scams, they steal money whenever someone tries to move large sums through them - saw some stories in the Russian local board.

[AniviaBtc]

If we assume that everything in the article is correct, then this is good news - and it is also good news that there are still quite clumsy hackers who manage to reach tens of millions of dollars and do not know how to properly protect their identity. Instead of enjoying in some exotic destination far from the reach of any justice, as we can see in the photo in the article, these three geniuses kissed the floor in their luxurious apartment.

That is their own mistake, their own fault to become detected and arrested by the authorities. Hackers are not perfect, they are smart in some point but there's no way that they are not making mistakes when it comes to making crimes like this. Even those huge scammers are getting punished by the law, just like what they've said, "No one is above the law". All of us should be responsible with our accounts and assets to prevent being a victim of these scams. Ukraine government should be proud of themselves because it is not really not that easy to find scammers due to their anonymity but as people are getting aware and intelligent when it comes to these schemes, scammers are getting caught easily.

[figmentofmyass]

The article though didn't name the 20 exchanges that supposedly run by these groups. It will be interesting to see the names.

i doubt you'd recognize most of the names---probably fly-by-night russian domains. that's why there is no mainstream media news about this. there was no large/well-known exchange shut down.

What can you say about Binance pet project though?

not a fan at all:

The project's goal is to identify hubs of malicious activity in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, track down the operators, and work with authorities to arrest and shut them down.

binance is brown-nosing, trying to earn points with governments, so they'll either continue letting them operate or only slap them on the wrist if sanctioned. as a bitcoiner, i hate to see this sorta shit. innocent people with tainted outputs from p2p trading, coinjoins, mixing, etc can get caught in the net.

[bearexin]

So many cryptocurrency scammers are being caught, this shows that criminals cannot hide under cryptocurrency, they will always be caught when they carry out any activity, all it takes is just time and they will finally get caught. Just like the Twitter hackers, they must have thought they have gotten away with it, and all of a sudden they got caught lol.

The new type of scam I’m seeing is now is the blackmailing type of scam, where they will send you an email and they will threaten you about exposing some things about you and claiming that they have been recording all your activities through a malware they installed on your device, after that they will tell you to send Bitcoin to their address. Dumb people.

[kryptqnick]

When I just got into Bitcoin, for the first few months I used to sell my coins on those exchanges from Bestchange. Luickily I soon found the proper crypto trading platform, which operates legally and has much better fees than those sketchy exchange services. And not only they are criminal, a lot of them are also scams, they steal money whenever someone tries to move large sums through them - saw some stories in the Russian local board.

I still use exchanges listed on Bestchange because I cannot find one that would be easy to use, reliable and have the fees which are as low. I try to choose exchanges with lots of positive reviews, and I've never been scammed this way, but of course there are many exchanges there, and some of them might be scamming people or be used for illegal activities.

At least the e-exchanges are not the main stream ones. The fact that Binance played an active role against this type of fraudulence speaks for itself - Bianance will not tolerate such behaviour, and in fact no e-exchange should either.

It is interesting though that the law just managed to catch the gang given their dubious activities for nearly 2 years 

Yes, I'm pretty sure they aren't mainstream, and I'm glad that Binance helped with the investigation. As for exchanges operating for 2 years, I don't find it weird because Ukrainian law enforcement doesn't typically get involved with cybercrime, not to mention that there's always a chance the criminals were bribing some police officers to ensure they won't get involved.

[hatshepsut93]

I still use exchanges listed on Bestchange because I cannot find one that would be easy to use, reliable and have the fees which are as low. I try to choose exchanges with lots of positive reviews, and I've never been scammed this way, but of course there are many exchanges there, and some of them might be scamming people or be used for illegal activities.

At least the e-exchanges are not the main stream ones. The fact that Binance played an active role against this type of fraudulence speaks for itself - Bianance will not tolerate such behaviour, and in fact no e-exchange should either.

To me paying a bit higher fees for much lower risk of getting scammed is well worth it. Centralized exchanges can pull exit scams too, but at least they are big companies owned by public persons, while these small exchange services have unknown owners and unknown offices. And even if they are not scams, they might be acting as fronts for these money launderers, so your money would still be at risk - you might attract attention of law enforcements if you get some very dirty coins from there.

[davis196]

Theres' no clear info,but I assume that those 20 crypto exchanges were clearnet websites.Maybe that's why the criminals were caught.
I think that most of the crypto exchanges involved in illegal activities and money laundering are .onion websites located in the darkweb.
Anyway,this is great news and I believe that more crypt scammers and criminals will be caught and put in jail in the future,even in countries,that have big problems with organized crime and corruption,like Ukraine.

[crwth]

I’m curious about what exchanges are involved in this type of dealings because it’s important to be far away from that exchange as possible. Imagine withdrawing your profits from trading and some dirty bitcoin is traced back to your withdrawal address, you could be in trouble for that. I hope no one gets into trouble like that with those exchanges. I don't think those exchanges are part of the top 10. They shouldn't be.

[avikz]

It's comforting to see that crypto criminals are getting arrested. It's really encouraging to see criminals behind the bars and especially crypto criminals who tries to leverage the anonymity factor of cryptocurrencies.

I suppose we need more and more tools like chainanalysis to track the illegal proceedings coming into crypto market through various mixing services. The criminals are majorly responsible for giving bitcoin a bad name amongst the non-crypto population. So always happy to see such news!