Bitzlato Crypto Boss Anatoly Legkodymov Suspected Of Money Laundering Worth IDR 10.7 Trillion

JAKARTA - Bitzlato founder Anatoly Legkodymov appeared in New York federal court on Tuesday accused of laundering millions of dollars worth of criminal proceeds through the platform.

Earlier, in mid-January, Legkodymov was arrested in Miami for his role in running a cryptocurrency exchange that allegedly processed more than $700 million in illegal funds. Legkodymov has denied all the allegations.

Legkodymov was charged with conducting unlicensed money transfers and operating a Hong Kong-listed exchange that failed to implement anti-money laundering safeguards.

The alleged money laundering worth IDR 10.7 trillion is allegedly related to various criminal activities and actors, including ransomware groups and drug dealers. In fact, the largest darknet market, Hydra, also originates from Russia, and Russia's largest crypto-pyramid scheme, Finiko, is reportedly linked to the money.

In late January, four members of the Bitzlato team, including three executives, were arrested in Europe, while another Bitzlato co-founder, Anton Shkurenko, was briefly detained, questioned, and released by Russian authorities in February.

Shkurenko reveals that Bitzlato plans to move to Russia and relaunch his operations from there. Although French law enforcement has confiscated the platform's hot wallet, it has also promised to recover some of the withdrawals.

After more than a month offline, Bitzlato began processing customer withdrawals in early March after its website was taken down by investigators in France. However, Europol announced that Bitzlato had exchanged more than 1 billion US dollars (IDR 15.3 trillion) of dirty money.

This indicates that Bitzlato has been involved in significant money laundering activities and requires further investigation by the competent authorities. Now, we are waiting for further developments in this case and how Bitzlato will respond to the accusations directed at them.