The US Justice Division has licensed the seizure of greater than $2.8 million in cryptocurrency together with money and different property as a part of a felony case towards an alleged ransomware operator.
In a Thursday discover, the Justice Division mentioned 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 car.
He has been charged with conspiring to commit pc fraud and abuse, pc fraud and abuse, and conspiracy to commit cash laundering.
“As alleged within the unsealed warrants, the cryptocurrency and different property are proceeds of (or have been concerned in laundering the proceeds of) ransomware exercise,” the discover reads.
“These property have been laundered in numerous methods, together with through the use of 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 newest US authorities motion involving cryptocurrency that might be used to bolster its nationwide stockpile, arrange by an government order from US President Donald Trump in March.
On Monday, the Justice Division mentioned it had seized about $1 million in crypto from the ransomware group BlackSuit, and federal officers are looking for to put declare 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 value of Bitcoin fell under $119,000. He later clarified on social media that the division could be “exploring budget-neutral pathways” to accumulate BTC.
Based on Bessent, the US authorities’s Bitcoin stockpile comprised property seized in felony circumstances after victims have been compensated, totaling about $20 billion as of Thursday. With the Bitcoin value at $117,387 on the time of publication, estimates counsel a US stockpile of 198,012 BTC, price greater than $23 billion.
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