U.S. sanctioned virtual currency exchanges Cryptex and PM2BTC for facilitating illegal activities

The U.S. government sanctioned the virtual currency exchanges Cryptex and PM2BTC for facilitating cybercrime and money maundering.

The U.S. government sanctioned two cryptocurrency exchanges, Cryptex and PM2BTC, and indicted a Russian national for allegedly facilitating cybercriminal activities and money laundering. The authorities believe that these exchanges facilitate the laundering of proceeds from cybercrime.

“The Justice Department today announced actions coordinated with the Department of State, Department of the Treasury, and other federal and international law enforcement partners to combat Russian money laundering operations.” reads the press release published by DoJ. “The actions involved the unsealing of an indictment charging a Russian national with his involvement in operating multiple money laundering services that catered to cybercriminals, as well as the seizure of websites associated with three illicit cryptocurrency exchanges.”

Russian national Sergey Ivanov (also known as “Taleon”) has been charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and money laundering, according to court documents. Ivanov allegedly supported the carding website Rescator and laundered proceeds from Joker’s Stash. For nearly two decades, Ivanov operated as a cyber money launderer. The US authorities state that the Russian national offered his services through Russian-speaking forums and supported the activities of cybercrime marketplaces, ransomware groups, and threat actors behind major U.S. data breaches.

Ivanov allegedly operated Russian payment and exchange services UAPS, PinPays, and PM2BTC, which facilitated money laundering for criminals. Blockchain analysis revealed that Ivanov’s services handled around $1.15 billion in transactions between July 2013 and August 2023, with 32% of the traced bitcoin linked to criminal activity. This included over $158 million from fraud, $8.8 million from ransomware payments, and $4.7 million from darknet drug markets. The U.S. Secret Service seized the domains associated with the UAPS and PM2BTC websites.

The U.S. Secret Service, along with Dutch authorities, seized the domains and infrastructure linked to PM2BTC, UAPS, and Cryptex. The U.S. Department of State also announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Sergey Ivanov through its Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program.

“As set out in the order, PM2BTC facilitates the laundering of convertible virtual currency (CVC) associated with ransomware and other illicit actors operating in Russia. PM2BTC provides direct CVC-to-ruble exchange services using U.S.-sanctioned financial institutions, otherwise facilitates sanctions evasion, and has failed to maintain a credible and effective anti-money laundering and know your customer (KYC) program. FinCEN found that nearly half of PM2BTC’s exchange activity had links to illicit activity, and correspondingly, that PM2BTC facilitates a substantially greater proportion of transactions with apparent links to money laundering activity in connection with Russian illicit finance as compared to 99 percent of other virtual asset service providers.” reads the report published US Treasury. “FinCEN also determined that PM2BTC employs an unusual obfuscation that inhibits attribution of transactions to illicit activity and actors. The same technique has notably been used by several virtual currency exchanges of concern, some of which are sanctioned by OFAC. “

The authorities also charged Russian national Timur Shakhmametov, also known as “JokerStash” and “Vega,” with bank fraud, access device fraud, and money laundering.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, virtual currency exchanges)