Feds arrest founder of bitcoin ‘mixer’ they say laundered $335 million over ten years

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Department of Justice said it has arrested a Russian-Swedish national who allegedly operated a long-running cryptocurrency laundering site. According to a news release from the DOJ, Roman Sterlingov ran Bitcoin Fog, a cryptocurrency tumbler or “mixer”— which hides a cryptocurrency’s source by mixing it with other funds.

Bitcoin Fog gained “notoriety as a go-to money laundering service for criminals seeking to hide their illicit proceeds from law enforcement,” according to the DOJ. The department says over the course of 10 years, Bitcoin Fog moved more than 1.2 million bitcoin, valued at the time of the transactions at around $335 million.

Bitcoin Fog has received a fair amount of coverage from cryptocurrency blogs and news sites…

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