American law enforcement authorities have cracked down on one of the New York based bitcoin exchanges, Coin.mx for operating without required licenses. US prosecutors have charged Anthony Murgio and Yuri Lebedev for violation of multiple federal statutes.
According to law enforcement authorities, Coin.mx has been operating without adequate clearances for some time now. The exchange allegedly continued its illegitimate operations even after the shortcomings were pointed out multiple times by different institutions. The US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York has unveiled the charges filed against both the Coin.mx promoters.
As Coin.mx was found to be in violation of federal anti-money laundering statutes and was operating without money transmission licenses, both Anthony Murgio and Yuri Lebedev are charged with one count of conspiracy to operate unlicensed money transmitting business and one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Anthony Murgio has been charged with one count of willful failure to file suspicious activity report and one count of money laundering separately. The case proceedings will take place in the Middle District of Florida.
The charges were brought about after the conclusion of a joint investigation by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Secret Service. The funds received as part of ransomware attacks were allegedly handled by Anthony and Yuri through Coin.mx. The investigators have concluded that the duo from Coin.mx had helped the perpetrators responsible for ransomware attacks with full knowledge to receive the ransom money. They failed to file a suspicious activity report on any of these transactions. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were illegally transferred across US borders by Coin.mx.
In order to circumvent the regulations, they were operating Coin.mx as part of a “Collectibles Club” and channelled transactions through an acquired credit union, which is now categorized as a “captured bank”. During the course of investigation, it has found that Anthony had connections with four other accused cyber-attacks on JPMC and other Wall Street banks last year.
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