The founder of the dark web-linked crypto exchange Bitzlato has reportedly been spared further jail time after his exchange processed over $700 million in illicit proceeds from the Russian dark web.
In a New York District Court on July 18, Judge Eric Vitaliano sentenced Anatoly Legkodymoc to time served after he pleaded guilty to one charge of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, according to reports.
Judge Vitaliano said the 18 months that Legkodymov had already served at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Centre (MDC) was considered more than enough punishment for his crimes.
“It’s a terrible place and the court does consider that,” said Vitaliano.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried also served time in the MDC ahead of his own fraud trial, where he was found guilty on all seven fraud charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Legkodymov also agreed to forgo any claim to the $23 million in crypto assets seized by French law enforcement during the global sting operation that shut down the exchange on Jan. 23, 2023.
The prosecution alleged that Legkodymov aided in the exchange of more than $700 million in cryptocurrency through the Russian dark web black market Hydra Market and failed to implement adequate measures to monitor who using the exchange.
The prosecution also said Bitzlato users regularly visited the exchange’s customer service portal to ask for help with transactions on Hydra Market and frequently admitted they were trading under false identities.
They also noted a May 2019 message where Legkodymov told a Bitzlato colleague that many of the exchange’s users were “known to be crooks.”
In a statement to the court, Legkodymov said that he’d spent the last 18 months reflecting on his actions regarding Bitzlato.
“I realize now as the founder of the company, I could have done more,” he said.
Legkodymov was arrested in Miami on Jan. 17, 2023, following a coordinated international effort to shut down the exchange.
The United States, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, and the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), took part in the sting operation that arrested Legkodymov and took the exchange offline.
Europol reported that roughly 46% of assets — equivalent to $1.09 billion at the time — processed by Bitzlato were linked to illicit activities.
“The majority of suspicious transactions are linked to entities sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), with others linked to cyber scams, money laundering, ransomware and child abuse material,” said Europol.