Home/NEWS/

Russian Agents Suspected of Cleaning Bitcoin-Exchange Platform

Russian Agents Suspected of Cleaning Bitcoin-Exchange Platform

2019/11/19

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), a successor agency to the Soviet KGB, could be involved in the disappearance of some US$450 million in cryptocurrency from one of the world’s largest online exchange platforms in the world, the BBC reported last week.

Wex, a crypto exchange platform in Russian, with hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoins and other virtual currencies, collapsed at the end of last year.

According to the BBC investigation, there is also a possibility that a Wex founder, Alexander Bilyuchenko, may have transferred the Bitcoin to FSB accounts.

The report reminds that Wex was launched in 2017 as a successor to another Russian crypto exchange platform - BTC-e, which the FBI shut down. US authorities accused the platform of laundering up to $4 billion of dirty money from all over the world.

One BTC-e's client was the Russian cyber-espionage group known as Fancy Bear, which US prosecutors alleged used bitcoins to fund hacking the US Democratic National Committee in 2016.

Bilyuchenko, a business partner of BTC-e's main operator - Alexander Vinnik, together with Dmitry Vasilyev, a high-volume BTC-e's client, then formed Wex, promising, as Meduza news outlet reminded, to return some of the funds its clients had lost in their dealings with BTC-e.

The BBC's report alleges that Bilyuchenko and Vasilyev started looking, in early 2018, for influential patrons for their exchange, and eventually found Konstantin Malofeev, a Russian oligarch and founder of Marshall Capital, a leading Russian investment group. Malofeev has also been known as a pro-Kremlin billionaire under US, Canadian and EU sanctions for bankrolling Moscow-backed forces in Eastern Ukraine.

Bilyuchenko and Malofeev reportedly agreed to build on the foundation of Wex "a new exchange that would serve as specialized accounting infrastructure to protect the financial and economic sovereignty of the Russian Federation."

As Bilyuchenko later testified, FSB agents contacted him, and "an individual named Anton demanded" he hands over a flash drive containing encrypted Wex assets, saying that the cryptocurrency in the exchange would "go to the account of the FSB of Russia."

The BBC has also obtained audio recordings between individuals discussing the Wex platform, in which the outlet says Konstantin Malofeev discussed the importance of bringing Wex under the control of the FSB.


NOTICE
This is an original piece. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited.
0
About products purchase, please contact our sales manager:
[email protected]

About miner repair and after-sale issues, please contact the repair manager email:
[email protected]

For business cooperation, please contact:
[email protected]

COMPLAINTS & SUGGESTIONS
If you have any dissatisfaction during the transaction or have valuable suggestions for us, please contact us via this email address:
[email protected]
Attention!

Recently, many companies claiming to be mining companies imitate us and say that they are related to us, or that they are our branch companies, which has caused customers to be deceived. Please be careful not to believe any impostors, please check our correct contact information and beware of being deceived getting scammed, and losing money.
please check our right contact way: Here

CLOSE