Founder and Majority Owner of Bitzlato, a Cryptocurrency Exchange, Charged
Source: Department of Justice
Founder and Majority Owner of Bitzlato, a Cryptocurrency Exchange, Charged with Unlicensed Money Transmitting
BROOKLYN, NY – A complaint was unsealed this morning in federal court in Brooklyn charging Anatoly Legkodymov, a Russian national and senior executive of Bitzlato Ltd. (Bitzlato), a Hong Kong-registered cryptocurrency exchange, with conducting a money transmitting business that transported and transmitted illicit funds and that failed to meet U.S. regulatory safeguards, including anti-money laundering requirements. Legkodymov was arrested last night in Miami and is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. French authorities and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) are taking concurrent enforcement actions.
Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Lisa O. Monaco, Deputy Attorney General for the Department of Justice; Kenneth A. Polite, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division; Brian C. Turner, Associate Deputy Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director-in-Charge, FBI, New York Field Office, announced the arrest and charge.
“Institutions that trade in cryptocurrency are not above the law and their owners are not beyond our reach,” stated U.S. Attorney Breon Peace. “As alleged, Bitzlato sold itself to criminals as a no-questions-asked cryptocurrency exchange, and reaped hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of deposits as a result. The defendant is now paying the price for the malign role that his company played in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.”
“Today the Department of Justice dealt a significant blow to the cryptocrime ecosystem,” stated Deputy Attorney General Monaco. “Overnight, the Department worked with key partners here and abroad to disrupt Bitzlato, the China-based money laundering engine that fueled a high-tech axis of cryptocrime, and to arrest its founder, Russian national Anatoly Legkodymov. Today’s actions send the clear message: whether you break our laws from China or Europe—or abuse our financial system from a tropical island—you can expect to answer for your crimes inside a United States courtroom.”
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/founder-and-majority-owner-bitzlato-cryptocurrency-exchange-charged-unlicensed-money
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Sounds like a great investment opportunity. Lemme steer my IRA in that general direction.
duh.
