Archive for February 2017

55 years prison and $110 million fine for running an illegal Bitcoin exchange

The US government has indictment BTC-e and one of its alleged operators, levying a $110 million fine for violations committed by the long-running bitcoin exchange.

Federal prosecutors allege that BTC-e functioned as a clearing house for illicit funds sourced from “computer intrusions and hacking incidents, ransomware scams, identity theft schemes, corrupt public officials, and narcotics distribution rings.”

In the 21-count indictment the Department of Justice alleged that BTC-e and Alexander Vinnik, the Russian national who was arrested in Greece and later linked to the long-running exchange, committed a laundry list of crimes throughout the exchange’s six-year history.