Law Enforcement | FinTelegram News

Category: Law Enforcement

April 9, 2025

U.S. DOJ Disbands Crypto Enforcement Team, Shifts Focus Under Trump Administration!

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has disbanded its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), a unit established under the Biden administration to combat illicit crypto activity. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the immediate dissolution in an April 8 memo, criticizing the prior administration’s “reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution” and asserting that the DOJ “is not a digital assets regulator.”

March 23, 2025

Hunting Down: Background on The Arrest of Garantex Co-Founder Aleksej Bešciokov in India!

On March 13, 2025, Indian authorities arrested Aleksej Bešciokov, a Lithuanian national and alleged co-founder of the sanctioned Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, in Kovalam, Kerala. The arrest followed an international law enforcement action Bešciokov now awaits extradition to Lithuania on charges of money laundering, sanctions evasion, and facilitating ransomware transactions.

March 10, 2025

Garantex Crypto Exchange Seized: U.S. and Allies Crack Down on Russian Money Laundering Hub

U.S. and allies take down Garantex—Russia’s rogue crypto exchange! In a major international operation, the DOJ, Germany, and Finland seized Garantex’s domains and servers, cutting off a $96 billion laundering pipeline linked to cybercrime, terrorism, and drug trafficking. Two administrators—Aleksej Besciokov and Aleksandr Mira Serda—are indicted for money laundering and sanctions violations.

March 7, 2025

U.S. Secret Service Seizes Russian Deep State Crypto Exchange Garantex!

The U.S. Secret Service, in coordination with international law enforcement, has seized the website of Russian crypto exchange Garantex. Accused of facilitating illicit transactions for ransomware groups and darknet markets, Garantex was previously sanctioned by the U.S. and EU for its role in laundering billions. The exchange’s abrupt shutdown follows the freezing of $28 million in USDT by Tether.

February 21, 2025

FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT: The True Money Laundering Nature of Crypto Daily!

Alex Slavomir Bures, a London resident with deep ties to cybercrime and money laundering, has resurfaced under the new identity "XXX Rico." Until 2019, Bures was a key player in laundering stolen funds for the cybercrime organization of the late Uwe Lenhoff. Now, whistleblower reports suggest he remains active in the crypto space, operating the online magazine Crypto Daily under a newly established Albanian entity.

February 18, 2025

Indian Authorities Seize $250 Million Loot From BitConnect Crypto Fraud Scheme!

Indian authorities have made a significant breakthrough in the ongoing investigation into the BitConnect crypto-Ponzi scheme, seizing over $250 million in assets linked to the fraud operation. This report provides an overview of the seizure, the methods employed by Indian authorities, and the potential implications for BitConnect investors.

February 12, 2025

SEC X Account Hack: Alabama Man Pleads Guilty!

Eric Council Jr., a 25-year-old from Alabama, has pleaded guilty to his role in the January 2024 hacking of the SEC’s X account, which led to a fake BTC ETF approval announcement. The false post briefly spiked Bitcoin’s price by over $1,000 before the SEC regained control and corrected the information. The hack was executed via a SIM swap scheme, and Council received Bitcoin payments for his role.

February 12, 2025

Phobos Ransomware Affiliates Arrested in Global Crackdown!

The U.S. DOJ has unsealed charges against Russian cybercriminals Roman Berezhnoy and Egor Nikolaevich Glebov, key figures behind the Phobos ransomware group, which extorted over $16 million from more than 1,000 victims worldwide. Their arrests were part of a coordinated international operation, including the takedown of 100+ servers used by the ransomware network.

January 31, 2025

Cracked & Nulled Cybercrime Marketplaces Taken Down in Global Law Enforcement Crackdown

In a major international operation, U.S. authorities and their global partners dismantled the cybercrime marketplaces Cracked and Nulled, disrupting two massive hubs for stolen data, hacking tools, and illicit transactions. The crackdown, executed with Europol's backing, involved coordinated takedowns across multiple jurisdictions.

January 27, 2025

The Fall of René Benko: From Tyrolean Luxury to a Nine-Square-Meter Cell as Investigators Uncover Millions in Hidden Assets!

Austrian property tycoon René Benko, founder of the now-insolvent Signa Holding, was arrested on January 23, 2025, in Innsbruck, Austria. The arrest was executed by the Federal Criminal Police Office's Soko Signa unit, following concerns from the Vienna Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office (WKStA) about potential evidence tampering and the risk of further offenses.

January 19, 2025

American Express Settles DOJ Charges for $230M Over Deceptive Practices!

American Express, the renowned credit card company, has agreed to pay $230 million to settle charges brought by the U.S. DOJ regarding deceptive marketing and inadequate recordkeeping practices in its small business credit card operations. This settlement marks a significant development in the financial industry's ongoing struggle with regulatory compliance and ethical business practices.

January 15, 2025

DOJ Charges Operators of Crypto Mixers with Money Laundering

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged three Russian nationals with operating cryptocurrency mixing services Blender.io and Sinbad.io, alleging they laundered over $700 million in illicit proceeds. This case highlights the increasing misuse of crypto mixers by cybercriminals, including ransomware groups and state-sponsored actors, to obfuscate their transactions and evade detection.

The Unraveling of Rabidi and the Rise of the SoftSwiss Network: Our Updated Forensic Report

A few months ago, FinTelegram released a first forensic report on the bankruptcy of Rabidi N.V., a Curacao-registered online casino operator with hundreds of millions in revenues — and no traceable assets by the time of its collapse in May 2024. That report already raised serious questions about the opaque structures behind Rabidi’s operations and its successor, Liernin Enterprises Ltd.

DeFi Decoded: Smart Contracts – The Code Behind the DeFi Revolution

Smart contracts are the invisible architects of decentralized finance. These self-executing lines of code run everything from token swaps to lending platforms without middlemen. But while they offer autonomy, they also introduce new risks—bugs, exploits, and irreversible mistakes. In this fourth installment of our FinTelegram DeFi Series, we explain what smart contracts are.

CFTC

Despite New Crypto Friendlyness: No Settlement Between U.S. CFTC And KuCoin?

A planned settlement between the U.S.CFTC and crypto exchange KuCoin is now in limbo due to a reported policy shift within the CFTC. This change is attributed to the Trump administration’s new approach, which deprioritizes enforcement actions against crypto companies. As a result, a CFTC attorney said that it is "unlikely that such authorization will be granted in the near term" regarding the settlement approval.

SEC’s New Era: Paul Atkins Sworn In—Will Crypto Finally Get the Regulatory Clarity It Deserves?

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has entered a new chapter with the swearing-in of Paul S. Atkins as its 34th Chairman, a move widely anticipated to mark a dramatic pivot in how the agency approaches crypto and DeFi regulation. For years, the financial industry—especially the burgeoning digital asset sector—has bristled under the SEC’s “Regulation by Enforcement” strategy.

Crypto Mogul Changpeng Zhao – Fallen, Rich, and Rising Again?

As spring 2025 blooms and Easter’s themes of rebirth fill the air, Changpeng Zhao emerges as one of the most controversial figures of startup mythology: a man who fell spectacularly, paid a price—then rose again, wealthier and louder than ever. Once the almighty architect of Binance, CZ now resides in Dubai with a net worth that Forbes estimates at $63 billion.