US seizes crypto domains connected with $800 million Russian money laundering operation  

The US department of Justice has seized three crypto domains linked to crypto exchanges accused of facilitating the laundering of over $800 million for Russian entities.

The US authorities were able to do this after obtaining court authorizations following suspicion of illicit activities by the exchanges involved.

The three crypto exchanges involved are UAPS, PM2BTC, and Cryptex and any user who tries to access these sites will be met with a notice stating that the site has been seized by US authorities.

The US Department of Justice in a Sept 26th statement charged two Russian national for allegedly pocketing millions from a high-profile money laundering scheme and for the creation of two out of the three exchanges seized by US authorities.

According to the revealed court documents the US DOJ accused Russian national Sergey Ivanov, also known as “Taleon,” of running an effective money laundry scheme for various bad actors including Cyber criminals, ransomware groups and darknet drug traffickers.

In the charges Ivanov was alleged to have created and operated Russian payment and exchange services UAPS, PinPays, and PM2BTC and processed roughly $1.15 billion in digital asset transactions.

This heavy amount was mostly processed for money laundering purposes in an operation that lasted from July 2013 to Aug. 2024.

The third crypto exchange Cryptex seized by US authorities was found wanting and believed to have processed over $1.4 billion in transaction with 31% of that total linked to criminal activity.

The exchange which operated two domains Cryptex.net and Cryptex.one were reported to offer anonymity to its users and didn’t require KYC registrations.

Cryptex just like UAPS and PM2BTC was advertised directly to cybercriminals.

“Working with our Dutch partners, we shut down Cryptex, an illicit crypto exchange and recovered millions of dollars in cryptocurrency,” Deputy attorney General Lisa Monaco stated

The press release by Us authorities stated that a cryptocurrency blockchain analysis revealed that approximately 32% of all traced Bitcoin handled by these exchanges were associated with criminal activity.

The press release went further to breakdown how the Bitcoin assets were used by the bad actors that made a bulk of the users of the exchanges.

$158 million Bitcoin assets were connected to fraud, over $8.8 million BTC assets was used for ransomware payments, and around $4.7 million originated from darknet drug markets.

What to Know  

• The US authorities have made several moves to crackdown on illegal activities championed by Russian individuals the crypto space.
• The DOJ and the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Ivanov and Cryptex while the State Department offered a $11 million reward for information leading to the arrest of those involved in the Ivanov or Joker’s Stash operations.