DOJ Charges Belarusian National With Money Laundering Conspiracy and Operating Unlicensed Crypto Exchange

February 4, 2024

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged the Belarus nationwide Aliaksandr Klimenka with cash laundering conspiracy and the operation of an unlicensed cash providers enterprise. Most of those prison actions have been perpetrated through BTC-e’s servers within the U.S. which have been “leased to and maintained by Klimenka and Soft-FX.” According to the DOJ, Klimenka faces a most jail sentence of 25 years.

Anonymized Trade of Bitcoin

On Feb. 1, the DOJ introduced that it had introduced prices in opposition to Belarus nationwide Aliaksandr Klimenka. The prices embrace cash laundering conspiracy and the operation of an unlicensed cash providers enterprise. Klimenka’s unlicensed crypto platform, BTC-e, allegedly facilitated a extremely anonymized commerce of bitcoin, based on an indictment unsealed on Jan. 30.

The DOJ additional alleges that BTC-e helped facilitate transactions for criminals and acquired prison proceeds. These illicit actions included pc intrusions, hacking incidents, ransomware scams, and identification theft schemes.

Most of those prison actions have been perpetrated through BTC-e’s servers within the U.S., which have been “leased to and maintained by Klimenka and Soft-FX.” In the indictment, the DOJ contends that BTC-e had neither the required cash providers enterprise registration nor an anti-money laundering program.

“Despite doing substantial business in the United States, BTC-e allegedly was not registered as a money services business with the U.S. Department of Treasury, had no anti-money laundering process, no system for appropriate ‘know your customer’ or ‘KYC’ verification, and no anti-money laundering program as required by federal law,” the DOJ stated in a statement.

According to an indictment, Aliaksandr Klimenka, a Belarusian nationwide, was arrested in Latvia on Dec. 21, 2023. Subsequently, he was extradited to the United States and made his preliminary courtroom look on Jan. 31. As per the indictment, Klimenka faces a most jail sentence of 25 years if convicted.

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