U.S. Officials Arrest Alleged Operator Of Mixing Service Bitcoin Fog
U.S. officials have arrested the alleged operator of Bitcoin Fog, a custodial bitcoin mixer that it says processed over 1.2 million BTC.U.S. officials have arrested Roman Sterlingov, a citizen of Russia and Sweden, after identifying him as the alleged operator of custodial bitcoin mixing service Bitcoin Fog. According to an arrest warrant, Sterlingov faces three charges: unlicensed money transmission, money laundering and money transmission without a license.An affidavit filed by a special agent of the Internal Revenue Service revealed that Sterlingov was identified through blockchain....
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A Swedish-Russian citizen has been charged with operating a multi-million Bitcoin laundering service after authorities traced his crypto transactions from 2011. U.S. authorities have arrested the alleged mastermind behind a multi-million darknet-based BTC mixing service, Bitcoin Fog, after analyzing 10 years of blockchain data.Authorities have issued a chilling warning to other users of illegal blockchain services: Anything you do today may come back to haunt you as “this activity is on this ledger forever” and ever-more sophisticated analytics technology can track down crimes committed....
Whether or not Bitcoin mixing services will ever be very useful to the Bitcoin ecosystem, remains to be seen for now. Digital currency was never intended to be anonymous, and any service claiming to provide something else requires users to put their funds and faith into the hands of a third party. Plus, users have to rely on Tor to access certain Bitcoin mixing services, which only makes the whole process even more complicated. Not to mention how there is always a risk of losing funds. Bitcoin Mixing Is Not For Everybody. There are several ways to go about using a Bitcoin mixing service.....
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) together with the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York have announced that they have arrested 'Defcon', the operator of illicit black market website Silk Road 2.0. At press time, the Silk Road 2.0 marketplace was no longer operational, with the website displaying a disclaimer that it had been taken down by Europol, Eurojust, the FBI, US Department of Justice and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Authorities arrested 26-year-old San Francisco native Blake Benthall yesterday in his home city. He will appear in federal court today....
A cache of bitcoins and litecoins has been seized by federal law enforcement officials as part of an investigation into alleged counterfeit software sales and distribution. Approximately 105 BTC and 900 LTC were cited in a civil forfeiture that included more than $7m, hundreds of gold and silver bars and coins, and a number of luxury items including sports cars, wedding rings and a diamond-encrusted Rolex. The operation involved a number of companies based in Missouri, Nevada, Washington state and Maryland. The digital currency holdings were confiscated from Rex Yang, a Seattle-based....
Following his arrest last month, alleged illegal bitcoin exchange operator Anthony Murgio is out on bail with a $100K bond. Murgio has been charged for operating Coin.mx in New York without having the proper regulatory licenses. The terms of Murgio's bail also state that he is not to communicate with anyone else involved in Coin.mx. His partner in the bitcoin exchange, Yuri Lebedev, was also arrested last month and was released on a $25K bond. Illegal Bitcoin Exchange. Apart from not obtaining the necessary regulatory approval for his bitcoin exchange, Murgio is also under investigation....