- Joined
- Jun 13, 2020
- Messages
- 6,993
- Reaction score
- 908
- Points
- 212
- Awards
- 2
Liberty Reserve Owner is arrested on Spain by police and liberty reserve is shut down all servers and offices sealed by police below the full article
Costa Rican have been held in Spain for alleged financial crimes
Costa Rican authorities raided at suspects home & offices in San José & Heredia.
Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk, 39, on Friday was arrested in Spain as part of a money laundering investigation performed jointly by police agencies in the US as well in Costa Rica.
Costa Rican prosecutor José Pablo González said Budovsky, a Costa Rican citizen of Ukrainian origin, been under investigation since 2011 for money laundering using a company he created in the country so called Liberty Reserve.
Local investigations began after a request from a prosecutor’s office in NY USA. On Friday, San José prosecutors conducted raids in Budovskys house & offices in Escazá, Santa Ana, southwest of San José, and in the province of Heredia, north of the capital.
Budovskys businesses in Costa Rica apparently were financed by using money from child Indecency websites & drug trafficking.
New York conviction
According to records from the U.S. Justice Department, on July 27, 2006, Budovsky and one of his partner identified as Vladimir Kats were indicted by the state of New York on charges of operating an illegal financial business, GoldAge Inc., from their Brooklyn apartments.
They had transmitted at least $30 million to digital currency accounts worldwide since beginning operations in 2002
The digital currency exchange, GoldAge, received and transmitted $4 million between Jan. 1, 2006, and June 30, 2006, as part of the money laundering scheme.
Customers opened online GoldAge accounts with limited documentation of identity, then GoldAge purchased digital gold currency through those accounts; the defendants fees sometimes exceeded $100,000.
Customers could choose their method of payment to GoldAge: wire remittances, cash deposits, postal money orders or checks.
Finally, the customers could withdraw the money by requesting wire transfers to accounts anywhere in the world or by having checks sent to any identified individual.
Budovsky and Kats were sentenced to five years in prison for engaging in the business of transmitting money without a license, a felony violation of state banking law, but got probation.
Costa Rican have been held in Spain for alleged financial crimes
Costa Rican authorities raided at suspects home & offices in San José & Heredia.
Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk, 39, on Friday was arrested in Spain as part of a money laundering investigation performed jointly by police agencies in the US as well in Costa Rica.
Costa Rican prosecutor José Pablo González said Budovsky, a Costa Rican citizen of Ukrainian origin, been under investigation since 2011 for money laundering using a company he created in the country so called Liberty Reserve.
Local investigations began after a request from a prosecutor’s office in NY USA. On Friday, San José prosecutors conducted raids in Budovskys house & offices in Escazá, Santa Ana, southwest of San José, and in the province of Heredia, north of the capital.
Budovskys businesses in Costa Rica apparently were financed by using money from child Indecency websites & drug trafficking.
New York conviction
According to records from the U.S. Justice Department, on July 27, 2006, Budovsky and one of his partner identified as Vladimir Kats were indicted by the state of New York on charges of operating an illegal financial business, GoldAge Inc., from their Brooklyn apartments.
They had transmitted at least $30 million to digital currency accounts worldwide since beginning operations in 2002
The digital currency exchange, GoldAge, received and transmitted $4 million between Jan. 1, 2006, and June 30, 2006, as part of the money laundering scheme.
Customers opened online GoldAge accounts with limited documentation of identity, then GoldAge purchased digital gold currency through those accounts; the defendants fees sometimes exceeded $100,000.
Customers could choose their method of payment to GoldAge: wire remittances, cash deposits, postal money orders or checks.
Finally, the customers could withdraw the money by requesting wire transfers to accounts anywhere in the world or by having checks sent to any identified individual.
Budovsky and Kats were sentenced to five years in prison for engaging in the business of transmitting money without a license, a felony violation of state banking law, but got probation.