US Treasury Sanctions Russian Cyber Criminals For $17 Million Crypto Theft

The US government has sanctioned two individuals for allegedly defrauding customers of three crypto exchanges. According to the US Treasury Department, the two persons stole $16.8 million from three exchanges, two of which are in the US.

Per a press release from the Treasury Department, the two men are Russian nationals who participated in a ‘sophisticated phishing campaign’ in 2017 and 2018. The men, Danil Potekhin and Dmitrii Karasavidi, created several websites to look exactly like they belonged to actual crypto exchanges, to deceive unsuspecting customers.

These customers, who were none the wiser, then inputted private information into these fake websites. Doing this, the customers unknowingly gave access to Potekin and Karasavidi. The duo then used several methods such as fake or stolen identities, changing into different crypto assets, and transferring these funds via several intermediary addresses, to pull out the funds.

Speaking on the incident, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin promised that the Department will keep fishing out fraudulent activity, and bringing perpetrators to book:

“The individuals who administered this scheme defrauded American citizens, business, and others by deceiving them and stealing virtual currency from their accounts. The Treasury Department will continue to use our authorities to target cybercriminals and remains committed to the safe and secure use of emerging technologies in the financial sector.”

The press release did not mention the name of any of the exchanges.

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