Pavel Lerner tied up in Spain
“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 United States, the founder of Bitzlato was detained in January 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.
Pavel Lerner
Pavel Lerner
Detentions and searches
Detained 45-year-old Pavel Lerner and 25 year old Alexander Goncharenko, permanently resident in Barcelona, as well as a 26-year-old Mikhail Lunov, who was in Spain temporarily and intended to leave the country in the coming days. 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.
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.”
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.
