Europol has arrested four senior executives of Bitzlato (1 in Cyprus and 3 in Spain), adding that servers rented from a hosting company in France have also been seized.
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In a press release, the European Union police agency said that Bitzlato processed around €1 billion in crypto transactions linked to criminal activities. In total, the Russian crypto exchange service received over €2 billion (119,000 BTC). Europol added that it had frozen crypto wallets and accounts with €68 million worth of crypto.
The agency said that the operation was cooperated with law enforcement and judicial authorities from Belgium, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands.
As iHodl earlier reported, the US Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) arrested Russian entrepreneur Anatoly Legkodymov, the founder of Bitzlato, for processing over $700 million worth of crypto from a darknet marketplace Hydra Market and ransomware gangs.
The DOJ said that Bitzlato facilitated illicit transactions for ransomware actors from Russia, including Conti and darknet markets such as BlackSprut, OMG!OMG!, and Mega.
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