The Zamoskvoretsky court in Moscow placed businessman Sergei Ivanov, whom the Russian investigation considers the organizer of the Cryptex cryptocurrency exchange, under arrest until November 30. Previously, the US Department of Justice offered $10 million for information that would help lead to the arrest of this man.

American law enforcement officials claim that Sergei Ivanov used the nickname Taleon, with which he first appeared in the early 2000s on the Mazafaka hacker forum. Through the forum, Ivanov established contact with the hacker Vega, who is considered the creator of one of the world’s largest online stores of stolen bank card data called Joker’s Stash.

Timur Shakhmametov, who was included in the American sanctions register along with Ivanov, was named as the store operator. Both are on the US Secret Service’s Most Wanted list.

In 2013, Ivanov entered into an agreement with the exchange service PM2BTC, which converts funds into bitcoins and issues its own debit cards. In the same year, he offered his UAPS payment service to hacker groups, according to the US Treasury and Justice Departments.

By using UAPS (“universal anonymous payment system”) could be engaged in the transfer of payments, laundering illegally obtained funds, American law enforcement officials said. In addition, UAPS made it possible to automate settlements with partners or data providers.

In 2018, Sergey Ivanov and the UAPS team launched the Cryptex cryptocurrency exchange, which was advertised on hacker forums. The platform was used by ordinary cryptocurrency owners and miners who had no connection to the criminal world.

Russian investigators claim that the turnover of the Cryptex exchange, a payment service UAPS and more than 30 related online services for 2023 amounted to more than 112 billion rubles, and “criminal income” – 3.7 billion rubles.

In turn, the US Department of the Treasury believes that over $720 million (66.5 billion rubles) passed through the exchange from administrators of illegal trading platforms, hackers, carders and ransomware operators (cryptolockers).

Previously, the Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case against the creators of Cryptex, thanks to which 148 searches were carried out in 14 regions of the country and 96 people were detained.