The founder of Crypto Mixer was convicted of money laundering in the US and seized cash, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero and Stellar
A federal jury in Washington just convicted the Russian-Swedish operator of the crypto mixing service Bitcoin Fog.
A Justice Department statement said Roman Sterlingov was found guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering, covert money laundering, operating an unlicensed money transfer business and violations of the DC Money Transmitters Act.
The jury also gave the green light to the US government's seizure of $349,625 worth of related crypto assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Monero (XMR) and Stellar (XLM), held on Kraken accounts are held, as well as 1,354 BTC held in a Bitcoin Fog wallet.
Evidence shows that Sterlingov operated Bitcoin Fog from October 2011 to April 2021. The jury found that during this period, the crypto mixer moved over 1.2 million BTC, worth nearly $400 million, at the time of the transactions.
According to the Justice Department, most of the funds came from dark web marketplaces, including Agora, Silk Road, Silk Road 2.0, Evolution and AlphaBay, and are related to illegal drugs, computer fraud and abuse, and identity theft.
“At launch, Sterlingov promoted Bitcoin Fog as a tool to anonymize Bitcoin transactions and evade law enforcement. His website charged customers a fee for the service.
Based on Bitcoin Fog transaction activity over time, Sterlingov has earned millions in commissions from Bitcoin Fog transactions.”
Law enforcement discovered that Sterlingov has ties to Bitcoin Fog after analyzing information from several crypto exchanges. The records revealed that the vast majority of deposits into Sterlingov's real-name accounts are linked to Bitcoin clusters connected to the crypto mixing service.
“While the identity of a BTC address owner is generally anonymous (unless the owner chooses to make the information publicly available), the evidence at trial has shown that law enforcement agencies can identify the owner of a specific Bitcoin address Analysis of the blockchain can identify.”
Sterlingov has been detained since his arrest on April 27, 2021 at Los Angeles International Airport.
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