Skip to main content

Bitzlato Co-Founder Anton Shkurenko Arrested in Russia, Report

Bitzlato Co-Founder Anton Shkurenko Arrested in Russia, Report

Russian authorities have reportedly arrested the second co-founder of seized cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato. The man, who recently promised to restore the platform’s operations from Russia, was detained at the request of Interpol and may face extradition to France.

Another Co-Founder of the Russia-Linked Bitzlato Exchange Apprehended in Moscow

Anton Shkurenko, co-founder of the recently busted digital asset exchange Bitzlato, has been arrested in Moscow, the Russian Telegram channel Baza reported. According to a post published on Tuesday, the crypto entrepreneur was wanted by French investigators who suspect him of extortion, data theft, and money laundering.

Better known to the Russian-speaking market, Bitzlato was taken down in an international law enforcement operation in January. The coin trading platform is said to have processed over $700 million in illicit funds received from criminal entities, including the darknet market Hydra and the Russian crypto pyramid Finiko.

The Hong Kong-registered exchange was established in 2017 by Shkurenko and his partner Anatoly Legkodymov, after launching the previous year as a trading bot called BTC Banker which facilitated peer-to-peer transactions.

Legkodymov, a Russian national residing in China, was arrested by U.S. authorities in Miami last month. An earlier report by Baza claims that about a year ago he transferred his share in Bitzlato to his partner and left the post of CEO.

The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) detained another three Bitzlato executives — the company’s current CEO, financial director, and marketing director — and a system administrator, in Spain and Cyprus. French law enforcement authorities took control of its servers and its website.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is alleging that criminal proceeds from ransomware attacks, hacks, scams, and extortions passed through Bitzlato. According to data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, transferred cryptocurrency worth nearly $346 million for the platform.

Russian authorities are yet decide whether to extradite Anton Shkurenko to France, the report noted. The news of his arrest comes after last week he said in an interview with a crypto Youtube channel that Bitzlato’s remaining team intends to relocate the business to Russia and relaunch operations, including withdrawals.

Do you expect other arrests in the Bitzlato case and do you think Russia will hand over its co-founder to France? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.



from Bitcoin News https://ift.tt/uDKdAY5
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mt Gox Creditors Updated, Trustee Says Rehabilitation Custodian Is ‘Currently Preparing to Make Repayments’

On August 31, 2022, the Mt Gox trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi explained in a recent letter that the rehabilitation custodian is “currently preparing to make repayments” to Mt Gox creditors. Trustee Updates Mt Gox Creditors — Repayment Date and Exchange Still Unknown Last week speculation and rumors concerning the release of 140K bitcoin ( BTC ) from Mt Gox littered social media platforms and headlines. Bitcoin.com News covered the situation six days ago as a number of people and Mt Gox creditors called the rumors “ fake news .” During that same period of time, a bitcoin whale transferred 10,000 BTC to unknown wallets, and a 2018 annotation , heuristics, and clustering methods show the funds likely originated from the June 2011 Mt Gox hacks. Following the mysterious whale transfer, last Wednesday, Mt Gox published an official update from the court trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi that explains the court is “currently preparing to make repayments” to creditors. Mt Gox creditors have been wait...
Post a Comment
Read more

International Crypto Exchange Luno Adds Bitcoin Cash Trading

Luno exchange has added bitcoin cash trading to the platform following feedback from its client base. BCH is now only the third cryptocurrency available for trading on the exchange, in addition to BTC and ETH , but more options could be on the way once Luno determines that they are credible enough. Also Read: Bitflyer Adds Bitcoin Cash Trading Across Europe and the US Luno Adds Bitcoin Cash Trading Luno, the London-headquartered company formerly known as Bitx, recently announced that bitcoin cash was made available on its cryptocurrency exchange. Starting from Monday, September 23, customers at Luno are now able to store, buy and sell BCH on the platform. The reason given for adding BCH to the exchange is feedback from users in developing markets that convinced Luno to expand their offering from previously just BTC and ETH . Marcus Swanepoel, CEO of Luno, said , “We are in a new and exciting financial era. Developing economies are leading the large-scale adoption and appli...
Post a Comment
Read more

DefiDollar Listing on AscendEX

PRESS RELEASE. AscendEX, formerly BitMax, an industry-leading digital asset trading platform built by Wall Street quant trading veterans, has announced the listing of the DefiDollar Token (DFD) under the pair USDT/DFD on Apr 29 at 1:00 p.m. UTC. DefiDollar is a DeFi lab that aims to bring mass adoption to DeFi with a wide-ranging product suite. The first product offering to go live will be the stablecoin index – DUSD, with ibBTC and optionCoin currently in development. DefiDollar (DUSD) aspires to be a risk-insured stablecoin layer for DeFi. It is designed to provide a safe and stable way for users to hold their assets with DUSD being optimized for peg safety, yield, and diversification. DefiDollar uses DeFi primitives to stay close to the dollar mark. DUSD provides an avenue for diversifying stablecoin holdings to hedge against an event where the underlying stablecoins like Tether or DAI deviate from their peg. DUSD is collateralized by Curve Finance LP tokens. DFD is the n...
Post a Comment
Read more