After a long undercover investigation, the FBI identified a massive Dark Web money laundering network. The Bureau arrested its founder, Anurag Pramod Murarka, a year ago but kept running the business to identify clients.
This allowed the FBI to make subsequent arrests as Muraka laundered funds from drug traffickers, crypto hackers, and more. Still, its methods attracted criticism about government overreach.
Dark Web Money Laundering Remains a Major Concern for Crypto
After the Bybit hack, the largest theft in crypto history, the perpetrators successfully laundered all the stolen funds. This dramatic incident highlighted a growing concern in the community, as criminal operations can launder huge volumes of money.
Recently, the FBI managed to break open a major Dark Web money laundering operation through a long-term investigation.
The agency arrested one specific Dark Web money launderer, ElonMuskWHM (real name Anurag Pramod Murarka), after he came to the US for medical treatment.
From there, the FBI continued to run its operations for over a year. This allowed it to track Murarka’s customers from varying criminal enterprises, such as hacking, drug trafficking, and outright armed robbery.
“Using the internet, the defendant provided his assistance to countless other criminals as they tried to conceal their stolen money and illegal drug proceeds. This case highlights the global scope of cybercrime, as well as the demand for diligence and collaboration in fighting money laundering,” said Carlton S. Shier, IV, a US attorney involved in the case.
The Bureau made significant progress in identifying Muraka by using his cash mules as confidential informants. Soon after, it escalated to more invasive methods.
For example, the FBI sent a few YouTube videos with low view counts to ElonMuskWHM via Telegram, then asked Google to turn over data on everyone who watched these videos.
In total, the FBI estimated that Muraka laundered more than $24 million over the Dark Web in less than two years. For these crimes, he was sentenced to 121 months in prison.
Although the FBI was able to arrest several more clients of Muraka’s Dark Web money laundering operation, its methods also attracted criticism.
Still, it’s important to remember the necessity of these enforcement actions. As crypto sleuth ZachXBT recently pointed out, there is an epidemic of sophisticated money laundering efforts in the DeFi ecosystem.
Additionally, the Department of Justice announced yesterday that it’s planning to cease enforcement actions and active investigations against crypto exchanges, wallets, and tumblers.
Although the DOJ claims that it will still pursue criminals, this would shut off long-term sting operations like the one that tracked ElonMuskWHM.
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