News : Liberty Reserve Closed ???

May-24-2013

Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk, 39, on Friday was arrested in

Spain as part of a money laundering investigation performed

jointly by police agencies in the United States and Costa

Rica.

Costa Rican prosecutor José Pablo González said Budovsky,

a Costa Rican citizen of Ukrainian origin, has been under

investigation since 2011 for money laundering using a

company he created in the country called Liberty Reserve.

Local investigations began after a request from a

prosecutor’s office in New York. On Friday, San José

prosecutors conducted raids in Budovsky's house and

offices in Escazá, Santa Ana, southwest of San José, and

in the province of Heredia, north of the capital.

Budovsky's businesses in Costa Rica apparently were

financed by using money from child Indecency websites

and drug trafficking.

New York conviction

According to records from the U.S. Justice Department, on

July 27, 2006, Budovsky and a 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.

Update : Libirty Reserve's main domain libertyreserve.com is not showing the original site,  its pointing to a sinkhole .

The administrator of cybercrime forum Carder.pro, for example, has been telling forum members that the entire incident is the work of professional hackers working for Liberty Reserve’s competitors.

Give your comments bellow