Russian Nationals Indicted for Hacking Cryptocurrency Exchange

On Friday, the US Department of Justice announced the indictment of two Russian nationals, Alexey Bilyuchenko and Aleksandr Verner, for allegedly hacking the cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox in 2011 and running the illegal exchange BTC-e. They are charged with conspiring to launder around 647,000 bitcoins stolen from Mt. Gox and using BTC-e to launder funds for cybercriminals worldwide. The indictment alleges unauthorized access to Mt. Gox’s server and fraudulent transfers of bitcoins to accounts controlled by the defendants.

“The Department of Justice will work tirelessly to identify cyber criminals, no matter where they are. And Bilyuchenko and his co-conspirators will learn that the Department of Justice has long arms and an even longer memory for crimes that harm our communities,” U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey for the Northern District of California said in a statement.