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By Christopher Bing and Zeba Siddiqui
(Reuters) -The USA on Wednesday indicted Roman Semenov and Roman Storm, two co-founders of the digital forex mixer Twister Money, for his or her involvement with the banned outfit and associated laundering of as much as $1 billion in legal proceeds.
Storm, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives in Washington state, was arrested on Wednesday, whereas Semenov – a Russian nationwide – is but to be taken into custody, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace in New York mentioned in an announcement.
The legal expenses towards each males, which embody conspiracy to commit cash laundering and sanctions violations, come one yr after the U.S. Treasury banned Twister Money on allegations that it helps North Korea.
The outfit facilitated greater than $1 billion in cash laundering transactions and laundered “a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}” for North Korean government-linked cybercrime group Lazarus, U.S. officers mentioned.
So-called digital forex “mixers” take the cryptocurrencies of many customers and mash them collectively to assist conceal the supply and homeowners of the funds. They’ve grow to be the “go-to technique for criminals to hide their ill-gotten positive factors,” Appearing Assistant Legal professional Common Nicole Argentieri mentioned in an announcement.
“The defendants operated Twister Money as a protected haven for legal actors to obfuscate the path of funds tied to their legal actions, corresponding to laptop hacking and wire fraud,” she added.
Storm’s lawyer Brian Klein mentioned his shopper “disputes” having engaged in any legal conduct and had been cooperating with prosecutors’ investigation over the previous yr.
“We’re extremely dissatisfied that the prosecutors selected to cost Mr. Storm as a result of he helped develop software program, and so they did so based mostly on a novel authorized idea with harmful implications for all software program builders,” Klein mentioned.
Waymaker Legislation, the agency representing Semenov, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Neither did the FBI.
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