Russian authorities bust cybercriminal-focused crypto payment ring
Russian authorities have detained 96 individuals linked to a cybercrime services ring, including an anonymous payment system, UAPS, a cryptocurrency exchange, Cryptex, and 33 other online services. This follows the indictment of two Russian nationals in the US in connection with a billion-dollar money laundering scheme via crypto exchanges.
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Russian authorities have detained 96 individuals linked to a cybercrime services ring, including an anonymous payment system, UAPS, a cryptocurrency exchange, Cryptex, and 33 other online services. This follows the indictment of two Russian nationals in the US in connection with a billion-dollar money laundering scheme via crypto exchanges.
A minute-long video on YouTube, released by the Investigative Committee of Russia in Moscow, reveals authorities raiding living apartments, arresting individuals, and seizing large piles of cash. The suspects are charged with organizing and participating in illegal banking, unauthorized access to computer systems, and criminal activities.
Multiple law enforcement units conducted 148 raids in 14 regions, targeting residences of criminals and places of illicit activity.
According to the investigation, the criminal enterprise, active since 2013, operated a sophisticated infrastructure for anonymous payments called UAPS, a crypto exchange called Cryptex, and other platforms.
The alleged criminal turnover reached 112 billion rubles ($1.18 billion) in 2023, and the group's profits reached 3.7 billion rubles (about $40 million) last year.
The ring primarily catered to cybercriminals, providing services to launder their illicit gains.
One of the largest cybercrime busts in Russia follows the US Justice Department’s actions against multiple illicit Russian crypto exchanges last week.
The US authorities seized the websites of three illicit cryptocurrency exchanges and charged two Russian nationals with involvement in the billion-dollar money laundering services. The crooks pocketed millions from money laundering and fueled a global network of cybercriminal activity, such as darknet drug trafficking and ransomware operations.
“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 announced last week.
Russian national Sergey Ivanov, known online as “Taleon,” and another Russian national, Timur Shakhmametov, known online as “JokerStash” and “Vega,” have allegedly been charged for providing payment processing support to the carding websites Rescator and Joker’s Stash, among other crimes.
Carding is the unlawful trade in stolen credit and debit card information. Joker’s Stash was one of the largest known carding markets in history, offering for-sale data from approximately 40 million payment cards annually. The estimated platform’s profits range from $280 million to over $1 billion.
The Rescator website advertised the sale of data from up to 40 million payment cards and the personal data of approximately 70 million people that had been stolen from a major US retail victim in 2013.
Ivanov allegedly operated Russian payment and exchange services UAPS, PinPays, and PM2BTC, which provided money transfer and laundering services directly to criminals.
Blockchain analytics services estimates revealed more than 37,500 transactions involving bitcoin addresses associated with Cryptex, amounting to a total value of approximately 62,586 bitcoin, or $1.4 billion, at the time the transactions were made.