The 36-year-old founder of cryptocurrency mixer Bitcoin Fog was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison for aiding and abetting money laundering between 2011 and 2021.
Roman Sterlingov, citizen of Russia and Sweden, pleaded guilty on charges of money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transfer business earlier this March.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has described Bitcoin Fog as the longest running darknet cryptocurrency mixerallowing cybercriminals to hide the source of their cryptocurrency income.
“During its ten years of operation, Bitcoin Fog has gained notoriety as a money-laundering service for criminals looking to hide their ill-gotten gains from law enforcement, and has processed more than 1.2 million Bitcoin transactions valued at approximately US$400 million. the time of transactions,” the Ministry of Justice said said.
“The bulk of this cryptocurrency came from darknet markets and was linked to illegal drugs, computer crimes, identity theft and child sexual abuse material.”
In addition to the prison sentence, Sterling was ordered to forfeit $395.56 million and to seize approximately $1.76 million worth of cryptocurrency and cash assets. He was also ordered to forfeit his stake in the Bitcoin Fog wallet, which currently holds 1,345 bitcoins ($103 million).
“Roman Sterling laundered more than $400 million in the proceeds of crime through Bitcoin Fog, his cryptocurrency ‘mixing’ service that was open to criminals looking to hide dirty money,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri. head of the criminal department of the Ministry of Justice. Division.
“Through his illegal money laundering operation, Sterling helped criminals launder the proceeds of drug trafficking, computer crimes, identity theft and child sexual exploitation.”
The development comes a day after the Justice Department also sentenced a Nigerian national, 33-year-old Babatunde Francis Ayeni, to ten years in federal prison for his role in a massive cyber fraud conspiracy that victimized more than 400 people in the United States. which resulted in a total loss of almost 20 million dollars.
Ayeni and other conspirators were “engaged in a sophisticated business email compromise scheme targeting real estate transactions in the United States.” said.
“More than 400 people across the United States were victims of the conspiracy. Of these, 231 victims failed to reverse the transaction in time and lost the entire transaction. The combined loss of these 231 victims was $19,599,969.46.”
Last week, the Justice Department also sentenced 34-year-old Nigerian, Kolade Akinwale Ojelado, to more than 26 years in prison for defrauding prospective homeowners and others out of down payments using adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) emails. phishing and spoofing, as a result of which money transfers were sent to bank accounts under his control. The fraudulent operation is estimated to have resulted in losses totaling approximately $12 million.
“Mr. Ojelad sent phishing emails to real estate companies, gained unauthorized access to many of their accounts, and monitored their email traffic to determine when large transactions were to occur,” the Justice Department said. said.
“He then intercepted the payment instructions, changed the information and sent the emails through fake email addresses that mimicked those of the original senders.”
The sentence is also worth it arrest The 130 suspects, including 113 foreign nationals, mostly of Chinese and Malaysian origin, and 17 Nigerian police officers in the Nigeria Police Force for their “alleged involvement in high-level cybercrime, hacking and activities that threaten national security”.
