Friday, November 29, 2019

Does Russia's Spy Agencies Use Bitcoins To Finance Their Operations?

RFE: How Much Did Russian Spy Agencies Rely On Bitcoin? New Hints In Leaked Recordings

When it was seized by U.S. law enforcement in 2017, BTC-e was described as "one of the world's largest and most widely used digital-currency exchanges." It was also one of the most notorious.

Billions of bitcoin and other digital currencies had been swapped since BTC-e's creation six years prior. But that was before one of its alleged founders, Aleksandr Vinnik, was arrested on a Greek beach in 2017 on a U.S. arrest warrant. The following year, Special Counsel Robert Mueller revealed precise evidence in alleging how Russia's military intelligence agency used bitcoin transactions to mask meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.

Earlier this month, new glimpses into the shadowy world of cryptocurrencies emerged in a BBC Russian Service report that provided more indications of how exactly Russian spy agencies were intertwined with bitcoin exchanges like BTC-e.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: There are a lot of claims and allegations in the above report, but there is also an admission that there is scant incriminating evidence to draw any conclusions ....

.... For now, there's scant incriminating evidence -- at least publicly -- that would directly expose how the money flows, something that would be of burning interest to U.S. intelligence agencies who have already concluded that the 2016 election interference campaign was authorized by President Vladimir Putin himself.

The above RFE report is still an interesting read, especially for those who are interested in Bitcoins.

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