Anatoly Legkodymov, co-founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato, has pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money services business. In court, Legkodymov agreed to dissolve Bitzlato and forfeit $23 million in cryptocurrency. The exchange was allegedly used by criminals due to lax controls over illicit money transactions.
Legkodymov was arrested in Miami during an international effort to take down Bitzlato, with the involvement of several countries and law enforcement agencies. The exchange was found to have deficient Know Your Customer/Anti-Money Laundering safeguards and was a major financial resource for the Russian darknet marketplace Hydra, which faced sanctions from the US Department of Justice.
The enforcement actions had a temporary impact on the crypto markets, and Europol claimed that a significant portion of the assets handled by Bitzlato were connected to criminal activities. Europol seized Bitzlato wallets and froze accounts on other exchanges.
Binance, another cryptocurrency exchange, was a major counterparty for Bitzlato and blocked funds in connection with the case. However, it later unblocked some of the funds and allowed users to withdraw a portion of their Bitcoin.
The Anatoly Legkodymov case has implications not only for Bitzlato but also for Binance. The situation is being closely monitored, as it could potentially involve Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, the CEO of Binance.
This News Article was automatically generated by Bob the Bot (AI)
| Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Geography | Europe |
| Countries | 🇺🇸 🇫🇷 🇪🇸 🇵🇹 🇨🇾 |
| Sentiment | neutral |
| Relevance Score | 1 |
| People | Changpeng Zhao, Eric Vitaliano, Anatoly Legkodymov, Breon Peace, Darren Parkin |
| Companies | Binance, Europol, Department of Justice, Bitzlato |
| Currencies | Euro, Bitcoin |
| Securities | None |
