Cyber Crime

Ukraine police and Binance dismantled a cyber gang behind $42M money laundering

Ukrainian authorities arrested the members of a cybercrime gang who ran 20 cryptocurrency exchanges involved in money laundering.

Police in Ukraine announced the arrest of the members of a cybercrime gang composed of three individuals who ran 20 cryptocurrency exchanges used in money laundering activities.

According to the Ukrainian officials, the cryptocurrency exchanges allowed crooks to launder more than $42 million in funds for other criminals.

The group has been operating since 2018, on multiple cyber criminal forums they were offering to convert cryptocurrency resulting from cybercriminal activities into fiat.

The men were arrested in June, now the Binance cryptocurrency exchange and Ukraine Cyber Police shared details about the investigation in a joint report.

“The defendants created online exchangers and offered services for money laundering and money laundering. About $ 42 million in transactions took place over two years.” states the press release.

“Cyberpolice has established that three residents of Poltava region are involved in such actions. The defendants organized a criminal scheme to provide services for money laundering. Namely, money received from hacker attacks on international companies, distribution of malicious software, theft of funds from the bank accounts of foreign companies and individuals.”

The cybercrime gang collaborated with operators behind malware operations, especially gangs who spread ransomware.

Police conducted searches of the suspects’ residences and offices and seized more than $ 200,000 worth of computer equipment, weapons, ammunition and cash. The cyber agents found digital evidence of criminal activity of the suspects on the seized equipment.

“According to this fact, a criminal case under Part 2 of Art. 200 (Illegal actions with documents for transfer, payment cards and other means of access to bank accounts, electronic money, equipment for their production) and Part 2 of Article 209 (Legalization (laundering) of property obtained by criminal means) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The suspects face up to 8 years in prison.” concludes the press release.

The arrests are considered a success that results from the Binance internal project named “Bulletproof Exchanger,” which was launched earlier this year to identify transactions connected with illegal activities and identify bad actors behind them.

“The investigation is part of Binance’s so-called “Bulletproof Exchangers” project that aims to track down transactions between Binance and high-risk entities.” reported the CoinTelegraph.

“Investigations of this kind are primarily conducted by Binance’s internal risk intelligence unit known as Binance Sentry as well as an analytics arm, the Security Data Science division.”

Binance helped law enforcement worldwide in investigating illegal activities, in September 2019 it helped a British prosecutors‘s investigation in an online fraud that caused $51 million in losses to victims.

In late 2019, Binance signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation to support the Ukrainian government to developing crypto-related legislation.

Binance also partnered with TRM Labs, a blockchain analysis firm that focuses on fraud detection.

[adrotate banner=”9″][adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, money laundering)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.

Recent Posts

Law enforcement operation shut down dark web drug marketplace Archetyp Market

Europol shut down Archetyp Market, a major dark web drug marketplace, in a global operation…

6 hours ago

New Anubis RaaS includes a wiper module

Anubis RaaS now includes a wiper module, permanently deleting files. Active since Dec 2024, it…

13 hours ago

New Predator spyware infrastructure revealed activity in Mozambique for the first time

Insik Group analyzed the new Predator spyware infrastructure and discovered it's still gaining users despite…

15 hours ago

Canada’s second-largest airline WestJet is containing a cyberattack

Canada's airline WestJet has suffered a cyberattack that impactd access to some internal systems and…

1 day ago

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 49

Security Affairs Malware newsletter includes a collection of the best articles and research on malware…

2 days ago

Security Affairs newsletter Round 528 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

A new round of the weekly Security Affairs newsletter has arrived! Every week, the best…

2 days ago