After arresting three men believed to be tied to a criminal group which laundered $42 million, police in Ukraine have recently revealed that their investigation was aided by Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volumes.
According to a statement from Ukrainian cyber police on Tuesday, the department has been working with Binance since early 2020 to bring the alleged criminals into custody. This was achieved by using algorithms to analyse and detect transactions that were potentially linked to financial crimes and fraud.
Binance Allocated Resources to Investigation
Earlier today Binance released a statement of its own, stating that it provided additional resources to “dive deeper into the potential methods” that were used by the fraudsters, who have been accused of laundering money through the crypto market.
“Suspicious activity detected and analyzed by the Binance Sentry team, in collaboration with the Cyber Police of Ukraine, led to the identification and arrest of a cybercriminal organization responsible for a ransomware campaign and the laundering of more than $42 million in Cryptocurrencies over the last two years,” Binance said in its statement.
This led to the criminal group being exposed earlier this year in June. The cryptocurrency scam, which lasted for two years, saw the fraudsters carry out financial transactions worth $42 million.
Fraudsters Face up to 8 Years in Prison
Because of this, the three defendants, who were arrested in June, face up to eight years in prison. The pre-trial investigation into the cryptocurrency scam case is ongoing.
Commenting on the case, Chief Oleksandr Hrynchak said in the statement (translated): "Because the digital currency market has a large number of financial transactions with money obtained from hacker attacks on international companies, the spread of malicious software, theft of funds from the bank accounts of foreign companies and individuals - the Department of Cyberpolice with Binance and its methodological assistance, promotes more prompt detection of those involved in such offenses.”
