Nearly 100 arrested in Russian crypto exchange crackdown

Ninety-six individuals suspected to be part of cryptocurrency exchange Cryptex and anonymous payment system UAPS have been apprehended by the Investigative Committee of Russia, the country’s primary investigative authority, for their involvement in laundering funds from cybercrime operations, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.

Both Cryptex and UAPS have processed almost $1.2 billion in illicit funds from engaging with cybercrime groups last year, nearly $38 million of which were pocketed by the arrested individuals, noted ICRF officials in a statement to Russian news agency Interfax.

Such a development comes a week after Cryptex and Russian national Sergey Ivanov, who has helped launder hundreds of millions of dollars of cryptocurrency for various threat actors, were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department. Ivanov, whose arrest and conviction could merit up to $10 million in bounties from the U.S. State Department, was reported to be subjected to further investigation in Moscow.