On 25 April 2023, nine crypto currency exchanges alleged to have aided cybercriminals were seized by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Ukrainian law enforcement agencies. Authorities alleged that these exchanges enabled cybercriminals to evade anti-money laundering laws.
According to a May 1 press release, the FBI’s Detroit field office and the Ukrainian National Police conducted “coordinated, court-approved activities” that resulted in the shutdown and seizure of the domains of nine virtual currency exchange services.
Among the seized domains are the websites 24xbtc.com and 100btc.pro, pridechange.com, trust-exchange.org, and bitcoin24.exchange. They allegedly offered utterly anonymous crypto exchange services and circumvented money-laundering laws and regulations.
In this regard, the FBI stated that the exchanges offered their services in English and Russian. They would have applied “lax” anti-money laundering measures and collected minimal or no customer information.
The FBI claims these unlicensed exchanges “serve as important nodes in the cybercrime ecosystem.”
According to the agency, many virtual currency exchanges were “advertised in online forums where criminal activity is discussed.”
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