On Wednesday, January 18th, the US Department of Justice announced its enforcement action against the Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency Bitzlato.
The announcement also revealed that on January 17th, the FBI arrested Bitzlato’s founder and majority owner Lagadimov—a Russian national.
Bitzlato and its founder are primarily charged with laundering money.
They also stand charged with helping and enabling a Darknet cybercrime network that involved drug trafficking, hacking, and extortion as part of the “Bitzlato-Hydra axis”
US Authorities also seized Bitzlato’s website.
According to the announcement, the action was a part of a large-scale international operation much like the October bust of a crime ring that used digital assets to smuggle oil and steal technology.
This article originally appeared on The Tokenist
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