Tag Archives: DoJ

Ilya Lichtenstein, a 35-year-old programmer, was sentenced to five years in prison for his part in laundering Bitcoin stolen from the Bitfinex crypto exchange. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the sentence, marking a significant development in a case involving the theft of nearly 120,000 BTC, valued at $71.8 million in 2016 but worth over $4.5 billion by the time of his 2022 arrest. The Bitfinex Hack According to court documents, the 35-year-old was responsible...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a civil forfeiture complaint to seize cryptocurrency worth about $16 million held in a Binance account. This action is the result of a years-long investigation into suspected illegal activities tied to alleged bribery schemes involving FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF. The Alleged Bribery Scheme The root of the DOJ’s case goes back to November 2021, when Bankman-Fried allegedly authorized a $40 million payment in...

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Nader Al-Naji with orchestrating a multi-million-dollar fraudulent crypto asset scheme involving the social media platform BitClout and its native token BTCLT. The securities regulator’s complaint revealed that Al-Naji raised over $257 million through unregistered offers and sales of BTCLT in November 2020. In the process, the exec allegedly misled investors by claiming the funds would...

Rashawn Russell, a former investment banker, has been sentenced to 41 months in jail for wire fraud related to a cryptocurrency and access device fraud. Russell’s sentencing took place at the Eastern New York District Court in Brooklyn after his September 2023 guilty plea. Former Banker’s $1.5 Million Crypto Fraud Prosecutors detailed that Russell began soliciting investments in November 2020, targeting friends, former college classmates, and co-workers for his R3 Crypto...

Changpeng Zhao (aka “CZ”) – the founder and former CEO of crypto exchange giant Binance – has been sentenced to 4 months in prison after a hearing in a Seattle courthouse on Tuesday. The sentencing follows CZ’s guilty plea to running afoul of know-your-customer and anti-money laundering requirements at his exchange in November. During the hearing, Judge Richard Jones acknowledged tht CZ had “accepted responsibility” for his actions, and that his actions at Binance were of a...

CoinspeakerCryptoQuant CEO Disagrees with DOJ’s Intent on Samourai Wallet Charge Samourai Wallet founders were both arrested on Monday after being charged with money laundering offenses by the DOJ. CryptoQuant CEO Disagrees with DOJ’s Intent on Samourai Wallet Charge

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicted two men for perpetrating a crypto Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of approximately $25 million. According to a press release from the Justice Department, 51-year-old David Gilbert Saffron of Australia and 52-year-old Vincent Anthony Mazzotta Jr. of California operated a fraudulent crypto investment scheme that lured victims with false promises of high returns. DOJ Charges Two Men for Operating Crypto Scheme Per...

The filing comes just weeks after it was reported that SafeMoon executives were at the centre of a Department of Justice (DoJ) securities fraud investigation. Crypto firm SafeMoon on Thursday, December 14,  filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, also known as liquidation bankruptcy. The filing was done by attorney Mark Rose in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Utah. This comes as the company’s executives face criminal charges in the United States for allegedly defrauding...

Binance says it has agreed to a robust monitorship for its compliance and sanctions control programs. Popular crypto exchange Binance has revealed that it has made significant progress with regulators. This follows after its recent run-in with regulatory bodies such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the (CFTC). In a Tuesday blog post, the exchange acknowledged that it may have done things a bit wrongly in the past. That is, it may have not considered how quickly it was...

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Anatoly Legkodymov, the co-founder of Bitzlato, a Hong Kong-registered virtual currency exchange, has entered a guilty plea for money laundering charges. Initially arrested in Florida, Legkodymov’s case was transferred to New York. Bitzlato Founder Pleads Guilty In a press release dated December 6, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) disclosed that Legkodymov is responsible for “transporting...