The IRS, as some noticed on Dread, had a conference wherein they discussed the darkweb and various elements of cycbercrime as it relates to the financial sector. The presentation includes information about Alphabay, mentions DeepDotWeb, and has screenshots of Dread.
In addition to the criminal charges for money laundering, unlawful monetary transactions, and conspiracy, the founder of the BTC-e bitcoin exchange now faces a $100 million civil complaint for monetary penalties owed as alleged violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. The complaint alleges that Alexander Vinnik, one of the exchange’s CEOs, willingly failed to follow AML procedures and failed to report suspicious activity, among other violations.
A federal grand jury indicted a Monmouth County, New Jersey, man for operating a an unlicensed Bitcoin exchange called “Destination Bitcoin” through which the defendant converted more than $2 million dollars of United States currency into Bitcoin. He faces up to five years in prison.
Localbitcoins, one of the services used to purchase bitcoin as anonymously as possible, unexpectedly ended the ability to trade cash for bitcoin. Although users of Localbitcoins have alternative options for buying bitcoin, trading cash for bitcoin was one of the platform’s primary incentives for those concerned with their privacy, such as the users of darkweb marketplaces.
Only days after Dutch law enforcement seized one bitcoin mixing service, another popular service ended operations and told users to withdraw funds. The service, Bitcoin Blender, is shutting down according to message in the website’s header and in a post of the Bitcoin Talk forum.
The Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD), in close cooperation with Europol and the authorities in Luxembourg, clamped down on one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency mixing service Bestmixer.io.