Russian authorities arrest nearly 100 in raids tied to cybercriminal money laundering

The Russian operation comes less than a week after the U.S. government unsealed indictments and sanctions against two men allegedly connected to the UAPS system

Russian authorities announced Wednesday the arrests of nearly 100 people related to the UAPS payment system and Cryptex cryptocurrency exchanges in an investigation into cybercrime-related money laundering.

The Main Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia — Russia’s top federal law enforcement agency — released the information along with a one-minute video showing authorities breaking down doors, making arrests, and counting what appears to be large amounts of cash.

The Russian operation comes less than a week after the U.S. government unsealed indictments and sanctions against two men allegedly connected to UAPS, and the U.S. Secret Service announced it had seized domains connected to the Cryptex exchange.

The Russian agency did not immediately respond to questions about the operation or whether the U.S. government activities played any role at all. 

In the description of the video posted to YouTube, the agency wrote that the suspects “carried out illegal activities in the exchange of currencies, cryptocurrencies, delivery and acceptance of cash, sale of bank cards and personal accounts.” The “main clients of these services were cybercriminals and hackers who used the services to legalize their criminal income,” the agency added, according to a Google translation.

The criminal scheme handled more than 112 billion rubles in 2023 — roughly $1.2 billion — and netted its operators about 3.7 billion rubles, the equivalent of roughly $39 million, the agency said.

Russian authorities arrested 96 people as part of the operation, according to the agency, after 148 searches across various parts of the country. The Russian authorities did not release any suspect names, but the U.S. charged Russian nationals Sergey Ivanov, also known as “Taleon,” and Timur Shakhmametov, also known as “JokerStash” and “Vega.”

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