Ukraine: Binance helps arresting criminals who laundered $42M

Binance was able to help the Ukraine’s cyber police to dismantle a money-laundering ring. Ukraine embarks on hacker hunt. In a press release published on 19 August, the cyber police of Ukraine announced the arrest of a group of criminals suspected of stealing and laundering more than 42 million dollars.

The three people arrested by the police were operating in Ukraine since 2018, in the Poltava Oblast. They are accused of having distributed ransomware and offered other criminal groups, to convert cryptocurrencies from illegal activities into fiat currencies.

During their arrest, the police reportedly seized computer equipment worth $200,000, weapons, ammunition, money, and even digital evidence linking them to the case.

The detention of these criminals took place last June and to do this, the authorities worked with several experts in the cryptocurrency field including Binance.

Binance committed to fight against cryptocurrency fraud

Binance was able to effectively contribute to the resolution of this matter through the “Bulletproof Exchanger” project. This is an initiative launched by the leader in crypto exchanges to fight against money laundering operations carried out through exchanges.

More explicitly, Binance uses a series of algorithms that constantly examine transactions processed by its trading platform, with a goal to detect and report questionable transactions.

The announcement released by Binance mentions the Binance Sentry and Security Data Science units as responsible for setting up this anti-fraud system and advancing the investigation within the organization.

However, the exchange also worked with crypto analysis firm TRM Labs to study transactions made by the suspects. And it was only after additional resources were allocated to the program that Binance was able to allow the cyber police to complete their investigation.

Binance assured that the project will continue its development, in order to help the authorities in the fight against illegal activities that exploit digital assets.

Note also that in November 2019, Binance and the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation committed to cooperate to establish a regulatory framework for the use of cryptocurrencies in the country.