Posted on 05/02/2023 10:26:49 PM PDT by familyop
The FBI and Ukrainian police have seized nine cryptocurrency exchange websites that facilitated money laundering for scammers and cybercriminals, including ransomware actors.
In its announcement, the FBI says the operation was carried out with the help of the Virtual Currency Response Team, the National Police of Urkaine, and legal prosecutors in the country.
The nine websites and their servers seized in this operation are:
24xbtc.com
100btc.pro
pridechange.com
101crypta.com
uxbtc.com
trust-exchange.org
bitcoin24.exchange
paybtc.pro
owl.gold
Visiting any of these domains today displays the seizure banner below, alternating its message between Russian and English.
[Banner behind the article link above.]
The seized sites allowed users to anonymously convert cryptocurrency into harder-to-trace coins to obscure the money trace and help cybercriminals launder their pilfers without being traced by law enforcement.
Most of these platforms offered users live support and instructions in Russian and English, covering a broad spectrum of cybercriminal communities.
"Noncompliant virtual currency exchanges, which have a lax anti-money laundering program or collect minimal Know Your Customer information or none at all, serve as important hubs in the cybercrime ecosystem and are operating in violation of Title 18 United States Code, Sections 1960 and 1956," reads FBI’s announcement.
"By providing these services, the virtual currency exchanges knowingly support the criminal activities of their clients and become co-conspirators in criminal schemes."
The website's servers were located in the United States, Ukraine, and various European countries and were also seized during the law enforcement operation.
The seized infrastructure can be analyzed by law enforcement to unmask cybercriminals who laundered money through the sites, potentially leading to more arrests in the future.
Crackdowns on cryptocurrency laundering networks are very important, as those platforms enable hackers to continue their extortion activities unabated and use the stolen funds in the real world.
By dismantling these services, law enforcement agencies not only hinder the financial operations of ransomware groups but also send a strong message to operators of such platforms that illegal or shady activities will not be tolerated.
In March 2023, the FBI, together with Europol and the German police, seized the 'ChipMixer' cryptocurrency mixing service, which was used by hackers, ransomware gangs, and scammers to launder their proceeds.
More recently, on April 24, 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned brokers who supported North Korean cryptocurrency laundering networks.
Finally, at the start of the year, the U.S. DoJ arrested the founder of Bizlato, a Hong Kong-registered cryptocurrency exchange, over allegations of helping cybercriminals launder illegally obtained money.
Ah yes, Ukraine, where there’s always something dirty going e.
Going on.
They probably forgot to give the “Big Guy” his 10%.
How can the seize something that is virtual? There is nothing you can touch and physically hold.
Maybe their buildings, but they are not getting the money? It’s not tangible.
They would have to know the 12 or 24 private key of each wallet in the Exchange. All they are going to see is the public address and not the private.
They can shut some Servers down, but the currency does not reside there. The Exchange is just an access point. The currency sits on a Ledger that is permission less. This means anyone can access the Ledger that is all around their world. All users need are the private keys to control the account on the Ledger. There is no gateway or sole Exchange to go through. An Exchange is simply a place to swap, buy or sell crypto, but it’s virtual as the Internet. It is not the only access.
This is article is like saying we seized the Internet. There is nothing physically to seize on the web, but I guess you can seize some Servers? So is it really seized if people can access their accounts anywhere there is an Internet connection?
What people do not understand is at the end of the day is the internet is light. You can’t seize light. Now we have tools servers, computers, etc.. that allows people to do what they want with it. But at the end of the day it’s not all at one location. It’s world wide.
You think keys are private and anonymous?
How quaint.
These exchanges have to operate on an actual computer.
Those are what were seized.
... Which is why I'm moving my investments into having software developed.
Crackdown time? I’m surprised they let this go on for so long. Did they really think they could escape government controls?
Money laundering
Ukraine
Fedgov doesn’t like competition
You both are probably correct
It was time to collect, busniness as usual. The corruptocrats basically rounded up the funds and can now luander it through the legal process as confiscted then dole as they see fit.
These operations will start up somewhere else and when enough is gathered the process repeats itself.
Just an opinion
Dude, the “cloud” is not something metaphysical. It is just a bunch of servers logged into by real people.
The servers are physically accessed by warrant then all traffic observed until everyone logging in is tracked back to their physical machine. Once there is enough evidence, they swoop in on their physical asses with a SWAT team.
Nothing is anonymous online and all physical wires/fiber can be traced nomatter what software you use. Even wireless logins are easily traceable with triangulation and cameras now everywhere
One of the attractions of crypto-currency is anonymous transactions. Based on this it may be flypaper.
Ukraine.
Really? Don’t they have other things to be concerned about? Like war?
Wow. They must be global central for criminal money exchange.
This is more likely to cover up Hunter Biden’s activity.
Dude..., you are mixing up a lot of things. It’s not all the same way. For example ost of the cloud is virtual. The only hardward component is the size of the pip.
Your are still in the world of TDM (time division multiplexing), when the world has been moving into OTN (optical transport network / fiber and light and not the copper world of frame networks) where the new T1s are 10g and 100gs. So everything below 10gs are just 1g cards at the lowest. Everything below 1g, 10 or 100g is virtual.
Granted there is still a lot of TDM hardware out there, but it’s changing. I can assure these Exchanges are not a TDM networks. The Exchanges need maximum bandwidth for security. Speed of a transaction is hard to hack if you can only see it between 1 to 4 seconds. No human can do that
In addition most user IPs are dynamic IPs and not static Ips like you are implying. Sometimes tied to a VPN to no where. So it’s way more difficult to trace the specific user of an Exchange.
However, for argument purposes let’s pretend you are correct about the above. Still they would need to know the private keys (12 or 24 word phrase that has to be in the correct order)in order to get into access specific account. Hint it does reside online. It’s offline. Even if you can access the private account you still have to have the authorization by the USER associated to it. Which consists of complex password, a timer, a pin code, an email and a cell phone number going to a specific phone number. In some instances it even requires a type of physical key the account is tied to. So yeah good luck with that.
Right but they do not reside in one location.
Much like the Internet does not reside in one location.
When DARPA was building the web there was a big debate about it being Centralized or Decentralized. The people arguing for decentralization won because they wanted the World Wide Web to be able to survive a nuclear attack. If it was at one or few centralized places, then it could be destroyed.
When it’s everywhere, then it’s impossible to destroy. Yes they can take down parts of it, but not the entire web, and it’s easy to bring right back up.
The kids of the so called elite are stupid and still think you can do it. They are going to lose again because they are not as intelligent as their parents.
“For example ost of the cloud is virtual.”
Nothing “virtual” can exist without physical servers and means to send the signals. Nomatter what it is called, the source is electronics and not some metaphysical force beyond our reach.
Encryption, VPN, torr, etc can all by bypassed by the state through the back end of electronics if they feel your case is worth the effort. Every manufacturer and network is without any doubt compromised. What Snowden revealed is now old news and just the tip of the iceberg...
You are still not understanding what I am saying.
The crypto does reside on the Exchange. Those are access points (aka Exchange wallets) to the Ledger that is around the world like the Exchanges on millions of Servers.
While yet there are physical servers, but when you go down to the user level it’s virtual. There is nothing to seize without taking the entire Server. You can’t do that in most instances because it’s not just Serving an Exchange. The Server have many different users on it, and not just crypto.
A Server can have an infinite amount of users on it, and they are not all using it for crypto Exchange alone. Often these Servers spaces are rented because it cost a lot of money to fix them. This is because the pipes are so big now, and again they are not at one location. They are replicated around the planet.
Here is another way to think of it.
At the user level it’s software... You can’t seize software unless it’s on 1 machine. That’s not the case with crypto or the Exchanges.
As for Snowden he used a software that’s hacking individual computers not Ledgers. Big difference.
A VIEW FROM THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS
As Mark Wauck summarizes “Ukraine’s professional military knows that the offensive would be suicidal. Ukrainian losses of manpower continue to be extremely heavy—Russia is claiming that Ukraine lost 15,000 men in April. Losses of equipment are reaching catastrophic levels as well, as Russian attacks have heavily targeted assembly areas for munitions and equipment.”
If Zelensky’s cowardice allows America’s foreign policy neocon scum to push Ukraine into a doomed offensive, it will be the most wasted effusion of blood yet in this catastrophic “proxy war.” And it will be the most disgraceful ending possible to the Neocon’s 30 years “forever war” that dropped the United States from a half century illusion of dominant hegemony to an also ran with an obsolete defense establishment and a wrecked economy, all in less than 2 years..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.