“Bitzlato is one of the main mechanisms for laundering criminal capital in the world with the help of cryptocurrency,” the Civil Guard (Gendarmerie) of Spain said in a statement published on Thursday, February 2. It reports on three detainees in the country – two Russians and a citizen of Ukraine. In addition to Spain, the operation was carried out in France, where three more employees of the platform were detained, as well as in Portugal and Cyprus.
And in the US, back in January, the founder of Bitzlato was detained Anatoly Legkodymov. In total, 18 million euros worth of cryptocurrencies were seized and assets related to the platform were blocked for a total of 50 million euros.
Detentions and searches
45-year-old Pavel Lerner and 25-year-old Alexander Goncharenko, who permanently lived in Barcelona, as well as 26-year-old Mikhail Lunov, who was in Spain temporarily and intended to leave the country in the coming days, were detained. All three were part of the management of Bitzlato, responsible for the marketing of the platform. They are currently in custody. The report also notes that during searches at the place of residence, 60,000 euros in cash and numerous documents were confiscated from the detainees. In addition, their cars have been impounded.
Law violation
According to the Spanish gendarmerie, the people of Bitzlato, a P2P exchange platform and online exchange registered in Hong Kong, have been offering their services not only in Russia, but also in other countries since 2018, according to the Spanish gendarmerie. They are charged, in particular, with the fact that they provide their clients with complete anonymity. “This violates elementary international norms that exist to combat money laundering,” the Civil Guard said in a press release.
The report also says that from 2019 to 2021, the Bitzlato platform, founded in Russia back in 2013, made $2 billion worth of cryptocurrency transactions, of which at least $966 million came from cybercriminals who obtained this money through the “illegal sale of goods and services and cyber extortion”.
EU fight against cybercrime
The report of the Civil Guard notes that the detention of Bitzlato figures “fits into the framework of the EU countries’ fight against cybercrime by liquidating firms that assist in the laundering of capital obtained from illegal activities.” The website of the service that offers to exchange bitcoin and informs that “the service is available both in telegram bots and in the web version, exchanges in cryptocurrency pairs through the Bitzlato exchange” was blocked “due to the bad reputation of the company.”
@bazabazon, 03.02.2023, 14:06: Arrested Pavel Lerner is a legend in the world of the crypto industry. He is known for being the co-founder and director of the EXMO cryptocurrency exchange. In 2018, Lerner left EXMO for another exchange, Utorg. Another significant project that Lerner has been involved in is the Monolith OS DAO, the first decentralized crypto ruble, an MCR coin with a 1:1 soft peg to the Russian ruble. According to the research portal Cryptolab, Pavel Lerner is one of the world’s best developers of analytical systems and a specialist in quantum computing. In December 2017, Lerner was kidnapped in Ukraine by unknown individuals and demanded a ransom of one million dollars in bitcoins. Having received a ransom, the kidnappers released the programmer. — Inset K.ru
RIA “Kursk”, 01/31/2023, “Kursk kung fu coach Pavel Lerner was detained in Europe”: According to the CryptoLab Research Portal, Lerner is “one of the most significant figures in the Russian-speaking segment of cryptoeconomics.” He is among the most influential people in the crypto industry in the world.
According to one of the detainee’s acquaintances, Pavel lived in China for several years, where he learned the basics of wushu. Later he returned to Kursk, opened a wushu section and married a local resident. Subsequently, Lerner and his family settled in Spain. It is known that the businessman has three sons. — Inset K.ru
