The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has fined BTC-e for money laundering.
The actions by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network were taken after the organization learned that the BTC-e was actively involved in money laundering activities. The organization hit the exchange, which deals in bitcoin and other virtual currencies, with a fine of $110 million.
This fine against the organization wasn’t the only action that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network took. It also went after Russian national Alexander Vinnik. Vinnik is one of the operators of BTC-e. He was arrested in Greece this week and faces a fine of $12 million.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network says that BTC-e allowed for money laundering to openly take place on its exchange. This includes transactions connected to “ransomware, computer hacking, identity theft, tax refund fraud schemes, public corruption, and drug trafficking.”
According to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, it also found evidence that customer service representatives for BTC-e were specifically helping users obtain money from through illegal transactions.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network notes that it also found transactions on BTC-e that were connected to stolen funds from the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange from 2011 to 2014. This includes more than 300,000 bitcoin connected to the theft.
The actions taken against the BTC-e by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network have taken the exchange down. The exchange went down on Tuesday and still isn’t back up. Unnamed sources claim that Vinnik was a key operator of the exchange.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
