Russian authorities have reportedly arrested the second co-founder of seized cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato. The man, who recently vowed to restore the platform’s operations from Russia, was detained at the request of Interpol and could be extradited to France.
Another co-founder of Russia-linked Bitzlato exchange is detained in Moscow
Anton Shkurenko, co-founder of Bitzlato, the recently discovered digital asset exchange, has been arrested in Moscow, Russian Telegram channel Baza reported. according to a mail Posted Tuesday, the crypto entrepreneur was wanted by French investigators who suspected him of extortion, data theft and money laundering.
Better known in the Russian-speaking market, Bitzlato was shot down in an international police operation in January. The coin trading platform is said to have processed more than $700 million in illicit funds received from criminal entities, including dark web marketplace Hydra and Russian crypto pyramid Finiko.
The Hong Kong-registered exchange was established in 2017 by Shkurenko and his partner Anatoly Legkodymov, following its launch the previous year as a trading robot called BTC Banker who facilitated peer-to-peer transactions.
Legkodymov, a Russian citizen living in China, was arrested by US authorities in Miami last month. a previous one report by Baza claims that about a year ago he transferred his stake in Bitzlato to his partner and stepped down as CEO.
The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) arrested three other Bitzlato executives, the company’s current CEO, CFO and Marketing Director, and a systems administrator, in Spain and Cyprus. French police authorities took control of his servers and his website.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alleges that criminal proceeds from ransomware attacks, hacks, scams, and extortions passed through Bitzlato. According to data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance transferred nearly $346 million worth of cryptocurrency to the platform.
Russian authorities have not yet decided whether to extradite Anton Shkurenko to France, the report noted. The news of his arrest comes after he said in an interview with a crypto YouTube channel last week that the remaining Bitzlato team intends to move the business to Russia and relaunch operations, including withdrawals.
Do you expect other arrests in the Bitzlato case and do you think Russia will hand over your co-founder to France? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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