© Reuters.
Written by Raphael Sater
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has charged Russian citizens with hacking collapsed cryptocurrency platform Mt.Gox, one of the world’s oldest and largest alleged bitcoin thefts.
The administration said in a statement that Alexey Bellyushenko, 43, and Alexander Werner, 29, have been charged with conspiracy to launder nearly 647,000 bitcoins from their hack of Gox Mountain, which collapsed in 2014 after losing what was then worth about half a billion dollars. . Cryptocurrency.
This event was one of the first indications of how vulnerable cryptocurrency users are on exchanges to convert their digital assets into traditional cash for committed cybercriminals. The industry has since suffered a series of massive robberies.
Reuters was not immediately able to establish contact details for Belyuchenko or Werner. The couple’s whereabouts were not immediately clear.
Piliuchenko was a senior associate of Alexander Vinnik, a Russian cybercrime kingpin who was arrested in Greece in 2017, convicted of money laundering in France three years later, and is now awaiting trial in California on charges of operating BTC-e, a now-defunct Russian. now. The Justice Department swaps accused of serving “cybercriminals around the world”.
The BBC previously reported that when Vinnik was arrested, Belyoshenko – who was staying elsewhere in Greece – avoided capture by destroying his computer and throwing it into the sea and immediately returning to Moscow.
The Justice Department said Bilyuchenko is also charged with conspiring with Vinnik to operate BTC-e from 2011 to 2017.