- The US Department of Justice has charged two Russian nationals with hacking into Mt Gox and laundering the stolen cryptocurrency.
- The two Russians are accused of stealing some 647,000 BTC between 2011 and 2014.
- The Russians face two charges, conspiracy to commit money laundering and running an unlicensed money service business.
- If convicted, the defendants could be sentenced to a combined prison term of 45 years.
The Criminal Division of the US Department of Justice, along with the Southern District of New York and the Northern District of California, has filed charges against two Russian nationals in connection with the hacking of Mt Gox and the subsequent theft of BTC from the exchange. Charges against Alexey Bilyuchenko and Aleksandr Verner were unsealed earlier today.
Mt Gox hackers face more than 25 years in prison
According to a press release of the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the case against the two Russian nationals has been split into two, namely the SDNY case and the NDCA case. According to the charges in the indictment unsealed in New York’s Southern District, the two Russians and their accomplices gained unauthorized access to Mt Gox’s servers in 2011. This was followed by fraudulent transactions where BTC was transferred to wallets controlled by Verner and Bilyuchenko.
The illegal transfers took place between September 2011 and May 2014, with the Russians transferring at least 647,000 BTC from Mt Gox along with their accomplices. At current rates, the stolen BTC would be valued at $17 billion. The Russians managed to launder more than 300,000 BTC through a New York-based Bitcoin Broker. According to the charges in the indictment unsealed in California’s Northern District, Bilyuchenko collaborated with Alexander Vinnik and other accomplices to run an illegal Bitcoin exchange between 2011 and 2017.
These indictments highlight the department’s unwavering commitment to bringing bad actors in the cryptocurrency ecosystem to justice and preventing abuse of the financial system.”
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr.
In the SDNY case, both Russian nationals have been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison. The NDCA charged Bilyuchenko with conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money services business, which carries a maximum prison term of 25 years.