The US Justice Division has approved the seizure of greater than $2.8 million in cryptocurrency together with money and different belongings as a part of a prison case towards an alleged ransomware operator.
In a Thursday discover, the Justice Division said it had unsealed six warrants authorizing the seizure of $2.8 million in crypto from a pockets managed by Ianis Aleksandrovich Antropenko, in addition to $70,000 in money and a luxurious automobile.
He has been charged with conspiring to commit laptop fraud and abuse, laptop fraud and abuse, and conspiracy to commit cash laundering.
“As alleged within the unsealed warrants, the cryptocurrency and different belongings are proceeds of (or had been concerned in laundering the proceeds of) ransomware exercise,” the discover reads.
“These belongings had been laundered in varied methods, together with by utilizing the cryptocurrency mixing service ChipMixer, which was taken down in a coordinated worldwide operation in 2023. Antropenko additionally laundered cryptocurrency by exchanging cryptocurrency for money and depositing the money in structured money deposits.”
The seizure was the most recent US authorities motion involving cryptocurrency that may very well be used to bolster its nationwide stockpile, set up by an executive order from US President Donald Trump in March.
On Monday, the Justice Division said it had seized about $1 million in crypto from the ransomware group BlackSuit, and federal officers are seeking to lay claim to $2.4 million in Bitcoin (BTC) seized by the Dallas FBI in April.
How a lot Bitcoin does the US authorities maintain?
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made headlines this week after suggesting the federal government was “not going to be shopping for” BTC as a part of its crypto stockpile plans, shortly earlier than the worth of Bitcoin fell beneath $119,000. He later clarified on social media that the division could be “exploring budget-neutral pathways” to accumulate BTC.
In line with Bessent, the US authorities’s Bitcoin stockpile comprised belongings seized in prison circumstances after victims had been compensated, totaling about $20 billion as of Thursday. With the Bitcoin worth at $117,387 on the time of publication, estimates counsel a US stockpile of 198,012 BTC, value greater than $23 billion.
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