Ukrainian investigators take down illegal $4m crypto exchange

Ukraine’s Bureau of Economic Security (BEB) has revealed an illegal cryptocurrency exchange operating in the country, with ties to an international money-laundering scheme using cryptocurrency.

The exchange, which illegally exchanged fiat and cryptocurrency and allowed customers to purchase cryptoassets, was used to “transfer funds illegally” between Ukraine and the EU and to “launder the proceeds of crime” and “hide” the exchange’s operations “from financial regulators.”

The exchange had “hundreds of individuals” as customers, in addition to “large companies,” and was discovered through cooperation with EU counterparts.

The BEB, which was established in 2022 to shut down illegal cryptocurrency organizations, particularly those linked to money laundering, has handed the case over to the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.