The US Justice Division has licensed the seizure of greater than $2.8 million in cryptocurrency together with money and different property as a part of a felony case in opposition to an alleged ransomware operator.
In a Thursday discover, the Justice Division stated it had unsealed six warrants authorizing the seizure of $2.8 million in crypto from a pockets managed by Ianis Aleksandrovich Antropenko, in addition to $70,000 in money and a luxurious automobile.
He has been charged with conspiring to commit pc fraud and abuse, pc fraud and abuse, and conspiracy to commit cash laundering.
“As alleged within the unsealed warrants, the cryptocurrency and different property are proceeds of (or had been concerned in laundering the proceeds of) ransomware exercise,” the discover reads.
“These property had been laundered in numerous methods, together with by utilizing the cryptocurrency mixing service ChipMixer, which was taken down in a coordinated worldwide operation in 2023. Antropenko additionally laundered cryptocurrency by exchanging cryptocurrency for money and depositing the money in structured money deposits.”
The seizure was the newest US authorities motion involving cryptocurrency that might be used to bolster its nationwide stockpile, arrange by an government order from US President Donald Trump in March.
On Monday, the Justice Division stated it had seized about $1 million in crypto from the ransomware group BlackSuit, and federal officers are looking for to put declare to $2.4 million in Bitcoin (BTC) seized by the Dallas FBI in April.
How a lot Bitcoin does the US authorities maintain?
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made headlines this week after suggesting the federal government was “not going to be shopping for” BTC as a part of its crypto stockpile plans, shortly earlier than the worth of Bitcoin fell beneath $119,000. He later clarified on social media that the division can be “exploring budget-neutral pathways” to amass BTC.
In response to Bessent, the US authorities’s Bitcoin stockpile comprised property seized in felony instances after victims had been compensated, totaling about $20 billion as of Thursday. With the Bitcoin worth at $117,387 on the time of publication, estimates counsel a US stockpile of 198,012 BTC, value greater than $23 billion.
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