The U.S. Division of Justice (DoJ) has introduced fees towards two Russian nationals for working billion-dollar cash laundering providers for cybercriminals, together with ransomware teams.
The fees contain cash laundering, financial institution fraud, and facilitating web sites that promote stolen bank card info and private knowledge.
The 2 people are Sergey Ivanov, utilizing the alias “Taleon,”and Timur Shakhmametov (a.ok.a. “JokerStash” and “Vega”).
Ivanov is accused of laundering over $1.15 billion in cryptocurrency by way of the UAPS, PinPays, and PM2BTC providers, whereas Shakhmametov allegedly operated one of many largest carding markets, “Joker’s Stash,” which made earnings of a minimum of $280 million and as much as $1 billion.
In response to the DoJ, Shakhmametov promoted Joker’s Stash on cybercriminal boards and was concerned in financial institution fraud and cash laundering in his function on the card store.
UAPS and PinPays acted as intermediaries for cash transfers and funds, and each have been confirmed to have been concerned in transactions with carding web sites like Rescator.
Rescator allegedly bought knowledge from the notorious Goal PoS breach in 2013, when as much as 40 million playing cards and knowledge of about 70 million people have been stolen.
PM2BTC was a cryptocurrency trade working primarily with Bitcoin, serving to criminals convert between crypto and fiat cash with none know-your-customer (KYC) mechanism in place.
The U.S. DoJ says that between July 2013 and August 2024, roughly 32% of all Bitcoin transactions related to Ivanov’s platforms have been traced again to prison exercise.
Joker’s Stash was a well-liked, long-running card store, providing on the market knowledge from round 40 million cost playing cards yearly. The platform operated between 2014 till 2021 when its administrator determined to shut it down.
Even three years after Joker’s Stash threw within the towel, regulation enforcement authorities continued to gather and look at proof, ultimately resulting in the particular person behind it.
This motion came about beneath the identical operation that focused Cryptex, a cryptocurrency trade that the U.S. Treasury sanctioned yesterday for laundering cash from Russian ransomware teams.
The Dutch authorities seized servers internet hosting PM2BTC and Cryptex, and confiscated cryptocurrency price over $7 million throughout the motion.
In the meantime, the U.S. Division of State introduced rewards of as much as $11 million for info resulting in the whereabouts of Ivanov or Shakhmametov.
Final week, regulation enforcement authorities in Germany seized 47 cryptocurrency trade platforms hosted within the nation and working in violation of KYC laws, facilitating cash laundering for cybercriminals, together with ransomware gangs.
Notable platforms taken down because of the operation, codenamed “Ultimate Trade,” embody Xchange.money, 60cek.org, Bankcomat.com, and Banksman.com, which collectively had over 1.2 million accounts and processed over 3.5 million transactions.