Security Service of Ukraine covered the network of unregistered cryptocurrency exchange services

In May 2021, another operation of the Security Service of Ukraine took place. In the course of its implementation, a whole network of illegal underground exchange offices was exposed. Fraudsters performed digital currency exchange and transactions with electronic assets. Their undeclared income was over a million dollars a month.

According to representatives of the SBU press service, a squad of civil servants stopped the work of several electronic currency exchange offices, whose clients in most cases were shadow merchants. Most of them "worked" by deceiving people with fake call centers or dragging them into the gambling business.

“During the pre-trial investigation it was established that temporary illegal exchange points had been operating for quite a long time. Fraudsters used their schemes to carry out uncontrolled operations with cryptocurrency, ”the official representative of the Security Service said.

Their activities were carried out in the following way: the attackers issued bank cards that were suitable for currency exchange, and registered them with nominees. The fake persons, as it turned out later, lived on the territory of Russia, and their data was simply sold using the Darknet network.

SBU officials claim that many intelligence services from different countries used services that allow making payments for illegal actions anonymous. The actions of the fraudsters are regarded as those that threaten the security of Ukraine and finance illegal ordered actions.

Security Service officers carried out a series of raids, during which several pieces of computer equipment were seized at several points in Kiev, as well as mobile gadgets used by fraudsters to exchange banned Russian electronic currency. In addition, cash equivalent to three million hryvnias was confiscated.

One of the organizers has already been charged with charges based on Article 200 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Today, the police continue to investigate and look for other participants involved in the case in order to bring all those responsible to criminal responsibility.

It is worth recalling that in February 2021, during general training operations with French law enforcement agencies, the hackers involved in the creation and launch of the Egregor virus were arrested.