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The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and law enforcement agencies in Ukraine have confiscated the domains of nine digital currency exchanges that allegedly aided and abetted cybercriminals.
According to a press release dated May 1, the FBI field office in Detroit and the National Police of Ukraine “carried out coordinated, court-sanctioned actions” that resulted in the closure and confiscation of the domains of nine virtual currency exchange services.
The hijacked domains included 24xbtc.com, 100btc.pro, Pridechange.com, trust-exchange.org and bitcoin24.exchange. Each reportedly offered its users completely anonymous digital currency exchange services, bypassing many of the rules and regulations required for licensed cryptocurrency exchanges.
Anyone who tries to access these websites will see a confiscation notice from the authorities.
The FBI noted that exchanges that offered services in both English and Russian had “weak” anti-money laundering measures and collected little or no KYC information.
The bureau said that such fraudulent unlicensed exchanges “serve as important nodes in the cybercrime ecosystem.”
According to the agency, many of these virtual currency exchanges “were advertised on online forums dedicated to discussing criminal activity.”
“Most of the criminal activity taking place on the affected exchanges has been linked to cyber actors responsible for ransomware, as well as other scammers and cybercriminals.”
Over the past few months, the FBI has been involved in a number of cryptocurrency-related issues.
Related: CFTC wins record $3.4 billion fine in Bitcoin scam case
On April 27, the FBI raided the home of former FTX chief executive Ryan Salame over his role as one of Sam Bankman-Freed’s former top advisers.
On February 3, the FBI confiscated 86.5 Ether (ETH) and two non-fungible tokens (NFTs) worth more than $100,000 from a reported scammer. The confiscation was the result of a lengthy investigation by independent blockchain researcher ZachXBT, who first exposed the activity on Twitter in September 2022.
