The U.S. Department of Justice charged Russian nationals Alexey Bilyuchenko and Aleksandr Verner with hacking Mt. Gox in 2011, at the time one of the biggest thefts in the crypto industry.
The two “gained unauthorized access” to Mt. Gox’s wallets around September 2011, the DOJ said in a press release Friday announcing the unsealing of a 2019 indictment, stealing 647,000 over the course of nearly three years. These funds were then laundered.
The DOJ alleged that Bilyuchenko was also an operator of defunct crypto exchange BTC-e, alongside Alexander Vinnick who was previously charged with operating BTC-e.
Both face charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, while Bilyuchenko also faces a charge of operating an unlicensed money services business. The DOJ’s Southern District of New York and Northern District of California offices both brought cases tied to the Mt. Gox hack.
In a statement, DOJ Assistant Attorney Kenneth Polite said, “This announcement marks an important milestone in two major cryptocurrency investigations. As alleged in the indictments, starting in 2011, Bilyuchenko and Verner stole a massive amount of cryptocurrency from Mt. Gox, contributing to the exchange’s ultimate insolvency. Armed with the ill-gotten gains from Mt. Gox, Bilyuchenko allegedly went on to help set up the notorious BTC-e virtual currency exchange, which laundered funds for cyber criminals worldwide. These indictments highlight the department’s unwavering commitment to bring to justice bad actors in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and prevent the abuse of the financial system.”
