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Russian authorities have reportedly arrested the second co-founder of the seized cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato. The man, who recently promised to restore the platform’s operations from Russia, was arrested at the request of Interpol and could risk being extradited to France.
Anton Shkurenko, co-founder of the recently defunct digital asset exchange Bitzlato, has been arrested in Moscow, Russian Telegram channel Baza reported. According to a post published on Tuesday, the crypto entrepreneur was wanted by French investigators who suspect him of extortion, data theft and money laundering.
Better known to the Russian-speaking market, Bitzlato was taken down in an international law enforcement operation in January. The coin trading platform reportedly processed over $700 million in illicit funds received from criminal entities, including darknet market Hydra and Russian crypto pyramid Finiko.
The Hong Kong-registered exchange was established in 2017 by Shkurenko and his partner Anatoly Legkodymov, having launched the previous year as a trading bot called BTC Banker that facilitated peer-to-peer transactions.
Legkodymov, a Russian citizen living in China, was arrested by US authorities in Miami last month. An earlier report from Baza claims that about a year ago he transferred his stake in Bitzlato to his partner and left his position as CEO.
The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) arrested three more Bitzlato executives – the company’s current CEO, CFO and Marketing Director – and a system administrator, in Spain and Cyprus. French law enforcement authorities took control of the servers and the website.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alleges that criminal proceeds from ransomware attacks, hacks, fraud and extortion went through Bitzlato. According to data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, transferred nearly $346 million worth of cryptocurrency for its platform.
Russian authorities have yet to decide whether Anton Shkurenko will be extradited to France, the report says. News of his arrest comes after he said last week in an interview with a crypto channel on YouTube that Bitzlato’s remaining team intends to move operations to Russia and restart operations, including withdrawals.
Do you expect other arrests in the Bitzlato case and do you think Russia will hand over its co-founder to France? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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