The US accuses two Russians who stole BTC and ETH

The US Treasury Department has formally brought an accusation against two Russian citizens held responsible for a phishing campaign which lasted several years and which targeted a large number of users of some of the main cryptocurrency exchanges. A very profitable operation: an equivalent of over $ 16.8 million was stolen.

Crypto theft worth $ 16.8 million

Subscribers to Poloniex, Binance platforms affected and Gemini. It all began in 2017 when counterfeit versions of the three sites were brought online, thus attracting the less savvy and consequently stealing their credentials, information and obviously funds.

The charges are aimed at Danil Potekhin and Dmitrii Karasavidi, residing in the cities of Voronezh and Moscow respectively. After getting hold of what it takes to authenticate to exchanges, the real ones, they reached out to Bitcoin and Ethereum.

A total of 497 victims were targeted: 313 registered on Poloniex, 142 on Binance and 42 to Gemini. The stolen cryptocurrencies were then destined for laundering by passing through intermediary accounts and fake identities. A maneuver that did not, however, circumvent the controls of the US secret services, capable of tracing the identity of the two.