3,500 Arrested in Global Operation HAECHI-IV Targeting Financial Criminals

A six-month-long international police operation codenamed HAECHI-IV has resulted in the arrests of nearly 3,500 individuals and seizures worth $300 million across 34 countries. The exercise, which took place from July through December 2023, took aim at various types of financial crimes such as...

Four U.S. Nationals Charged in $80 Million Pig Butchering Crypto Scam

Four U.S. nationals have been charged for participating in an illicit scheme that earned them more than $80 million via cryptocurrency investment scams. The defendants – Lu Zhang, 36, of Alhambra, California; Justin Walker, 31, of Cypress, California; Joseph Wong, 32, Rosemead, California; and...

Spanish Police Nab Venezuelan Leader of Kelvin Security Hacker Group

By Waqas The arrested Venezuelan individual now faces charges including membership in a criminal organization, disclosure of secrets, computer damage, and money laundering. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Spanish Police Nab Venezuelan Leader of Kelvin Security Hacker Grou...

Founder of Bitzlato Cryptocurrency Exchange Pleads Guilty in Money-Laundering Scheme

The Russian founder of the now-defunct Bitzlato cryptocurrency exchange has pleaded guilty, nearly 11 months after he was arrested in Miami earlier this year. Anatoly Legkodymov aka Anatolii Legkodymov, Gandalf, and Tolik, according to the U.S. Justice Department, admitted to operating an...

North Korea's Lazarus Group Rakes in $3 Billion from Cryptocurrency Hacks

Threat actors from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea DPRK are increasingly targeting the cryptocurrency sector as a major revenue generation mechanism since at least 2017 to get around sanctions imposed against the country. "Even though movement in and out of and within the country is...

US Seizes Bitcoin Mixer Sinbad.io Used by Lazarus Group

By Waqas US Treasury Sanctions Sinbad.io for Laundering Millions in Stolen Funds Linked to North Korea's Lazarus Group. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: US Seizes Bitcoin Mixer Sinbad.io Used by Lazarus Group...

DOJ Charges Binance With Vast Money-Laundering Scheme and Sanctions Violations

From Russia to Iran, the feds have charged Binance with conducting well over $1 billion in transactions with sanctioned countries and criminal actors...

Russian Reshipping Service ‘SWAT USA Drop’ Exposed

The login page for the criminal reshipping service SWAT USA Drop. One of the largest cybercrime services for laundering stolen merchandise was hacked recently, exposing its internal operations, finances and organizational structure. Heres a closer look at the Russia-based SWAT USA Drop Service,...

34 Cybercriminals Arrested in Spain for Multi-Million Dollar Online Scams

Spanish law enforcement officials have announced the arrest of 34 members of a criminal group that carried out various online scams, netting the gang about €3 million $3.2 million in illegal profits. Authorities conducted searches across 16 locations Madrid, Malaga, Huelva, Alicante, and Murcia,...

Chinese Scammers Use Fake Loan Apps for Money Laundering

By Deeba Ahmed A large number of victims of these scams are unsuspecting users in India. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Chinese Scammers Use Fake Loan Apps for Money Laundering...

Citing Hamas, the US Wants to Treat Crypto "Mixers" as Suspected Money Launderers

With a new emphasis on the Hamas attacks on Israel, the US Treasury has proposed designating foreign cryptocurrency “mixer” services as money launderers and national security threats...

North Korea's Lazarus Group Launders $900 Million in Cryptocurrency

As much as $7 billion in cryptocurrency has been illicitly laundered through cross-chain crime, with the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group linked to the theft of roughly $900 million of those proceeds between July 2022 and July of this year. "As traditional entities such as mixers continue to be...

Tornado Cash Founders Charged in Billion-Dollar Crypto Laundering Scandal

The U.S. Justice Department DoJ on Wednesday unsealed an indictment against two founders of the now-sanctioned Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixer service, charging them with laundering more than $1 billion in criminal proceeds. Both the individuals, Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, have been charged...

NYC Couple Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering in $3.6 Billion Bitfinex Hack

A married couple from New York City has pleaded guilty to money laundering charges in connection with the 2016 hack of cryptocurrency stock exchange Bitfinex, resulting in the theft of about 120,000 bitcoin. The development comes more than a year after Ilya Lichtenstein, 35, and his wife, Heather...

DDoS Botnets Hijacking Zyxel Devices to Launch Devastating Attacks

Several distributed denial-of-service DDoS botnets have been observed exploiting a critical flaw in Zyxel devices that came to light in April 2023 to gain remote control of vulnerable systems. "Through the capture of exploit traffic, the attacker's IP address was identified, and it was determined...

Criminal secure messaging system takedown: 6500+ arrests and €900 million+ seized

In 2020, we reported on how law enforcement managed to compromise a secure communications system set up by and for criminals. Now, Europol has published a progress report showing the enormous impact the infiltration of the encrypted communications tool EncroChat made. EncroChat, a company based i...

EncroChat Bust Leads to 6,558 Criminals' Arrests and €900 Million Seizure

Europol on Tuesday announced that the takedown of EncroChat in July 2020 led to 6,558 arrests worldwide and the seizure of €900 million in illicit criminal proceeds. The law enforcement agency said that a subsequent joint investigation initiated by French and Dutch authorities intercepted and...

Ransomware Hackers and Scammers Utilizing Cloud Mining to Launder Cryptocurrency

Ransomware actors and cryptocurrency scammers have joined nation-state actors in abusing cloud mining services to launder digital assets, new findings reveal. "Cryptocurrency mining is a crucial part of our industry, but it also holds special appeal to bad actors, as it provides a means to acquir...

Ransomware Hackers and Scammers Utilizing Cloud Mining to Launder Cryptocurrency

Ransomware actors and cryptocurrency scammers have joined nation-state actors in abusing cloud mining services to launder digital assets, new findings reveal. "Cryptocurrency mining is a crucial part of our industry, but it also holds special appeal to bad actors, as it provides a means to acquir...

2 Russians charged in Mt. Gox Bitcoin heist and BTC-e money laundering

By Habiba Rashid Accused individuals allegedly conspired to launder around 647,000 stolen Bitcoins from Mt. Gox, leading to its collapse. This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: 2 Russians charged in Mt. Gox Bitcoin heist and BTC-e money laundering...