{"id":41541,"date":"2021-04-28T12:41:34","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T09:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=41541"},"modified":"2025-08-30T19:12:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T16:12:39","slug":"us-arrests-russian-national-over-laundering-1-2-million-btc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/us-arrests-russian-national-over-laundering-1-2-million-btc\/","title":{"rendered":"US arrests Russian national over laundering 1.2 million BTC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The US authorities <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courtlistener.com\/docket\/59856080\/5\/united-states-v-sterlingov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u0430\u0440\u0435\u0441\u0442\u043e\u0432\u0430\u043b\u0438<\/a> the alleged operator of the Bitcoin Fog bitcoin-mixing service, Roman Sterlingov. He is charged with laundering about $336 million through cryptocurrency and providing payment services without a licence.<\/p>\n<p>According to investigators, the Bitcoin mixer, launched in 2011, was used to transfer about 1.2 million BTC ($335.8 million at the time of the transactions).<\/p>\n<p>These coins are believed to have originated from various hacked exchanges and darknet markets Silk Road, Evolution, AlphaBay, Agora and Silk Road 2.0.<\/p>\n<p>Bitcoin Fog is not registered as a money services provider and does not hold a licence to operate in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n<p>Using analysis of bitcoin transactions, financial records, internet-provider logs and email correspondence, investigators identified the Russian- and Swedish-national Roman Sterlingov as the main operator of Bitcoin Fog.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors say they have established a link between Sterlingov and the Bitcoin Fog domain via his transactions in the Liberty Reserve data-sale system and accounts on the defunct Mt. Gox exchange.<\/p>\n<p>In October 2020, the US Department of Justice first deemed cryptocurrency mixing a crime. Then <span class=\"tooltip\">[simple_tooltip content=\u2019\u0421\u0435\u0442\u044c \u043f\u043e \u0431\u043e\u0440\u044c\u0431\u0435 \u0441 \u0444\u0438\u043d\u0430\u043d\u0441\u043e\u0432\u044b\u043c\u0438 \u043f\u0440\u0435\u0441\u0442\u0443\u043f\u043b\u0435\u043d\u0438\u044f\u043c\u0438\u2019]FinCEN[\/simple_tooltip] <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/fincen-imposes-first-ever-fine-on-bitcoin-mixer\">fined the founder of the Bitcoin mixer Helix<\/a> and Coin Ninja CEO Larry Din Harmon $60 million.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to ForkLog news on Telegram: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/forklogfeed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ForkLog Feed<\/a> \u2014 all the news, <a href=\"https:\/\/telegram.me\/forklog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ForkLog<\/a> \u2014 the most important news, infographics and opinions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US authorities arrested the alleged operator of the Bitcoin Fog bitcoin-mixing service, Roman Sterlingov. He is charged with laundering about $336 million through cryptocurrency and providing payment services without a licence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1154,1444,1256,26],"class_list":["post-41541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crimes","tag-law-enforcement","tag-privacy-and-personal-data","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"17","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41541"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41543,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41541\/revisions\/41543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}