The US department of Justice has seized three crypto domains linked to crypto exchanges accused of facilitating the laundering of over $800 million for Russian entities.
The US authorities were able to do this after obtaining court authorizations following suspicion of illicit activities by the exchanges involved.
The three crypto exchanges involved are UAPS, PM2BTC, and Cryptex and any user who tries to access these sites will be met with a notice stating that the site has been seized by US authorities.
The US Department of Justice in a Sept 26th statement charged two Russian national for allegedly pocketing millions from a high-profile money laundering scheme and for the creation of two out of the three exchanges seized by US authorities.
According to the revealed court documents the US DOJ accused Russian national Sergey Ivanov, also known as “Taleon,” of running an effective money laundry scheme for various bad actors including Cyber criminals, ransomware groups and darknet drug traffickers.
In the charges Ivanov was alleged to have created and operated Russian payment and exchange services UAPS, PinPays, and PM2BTC and processed roughly $1.15 billion in digital asset transactions.
This heavy amount was mostly processed for money laundering purposes in an operation that lasted from July 2013 to Aug. 2024.
The third crypto exchange Cryptex seized by US authorities was found wanting and believed to have processed over $1.4 billion in transaction with 31% of that total linked to criminal activity.
The exchange which operated two domains Cryptex.net and Cryptex.one were reported to offer anonymity to its users and didn’t require KYC registrations.
Cryptex just like UAPS and PM2BTC was advertised directly to cybercriminals.
“Working with our Dutch partners, we shut down Cryptex, an illicit crypto exchange and recovered millions of dollars in cryptocurrency,” Deputy attorney General Lisa Monaco stated
The press release by Us authorities stated that a cryptocurrency blockchain analysis revealed that approximately 32% of all traced Bitcoin handled by these exchanges were associated with criminal activity.
The press release went further to breakdown how the Bitcoin assets were used by the bad actors that made a bulk of the users of the exchanges.
$158 million Bitcoin assets were connected to fraud, over $8.8 million BTC assets was used for ransomware payments, and around $4.7 million originated from darknet drug markets.
I am Michael Ndu-Okeke, a crypto reporter and analyst covering the intriguing world of Cryptocurrencies and its market. My work focuses on informative news, industry trends and research explaining the crypto industry to a wide range of readers.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Follow us on social media:
© 2025 Nairametrics
Login to your account below
Fill the forms below to register
Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.
© 2025 Nairametrics
