20 years in prison. Here is what Roman Sterlingov risks now that the American justice system has found him guilty of all the charges brought against him in the Bitcoin Fog case. According to the court, this cryptocurrency mixer was used to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from illicit activities on various Darknet platforms and the defendant would have had a central role in all of this. During the trial, the prosecution received strong reinforcement in the person of Ilya Lichtenstein, the Bitfinex hacker, who came to explain how these famous crypto mixers work and his experience ultimately made it possible to confuse the accused. A look back at a sentence which testifies to the desire of American justice to come down hard on cybercriminals.
The main operator of Bitcoin Fog is guilty according to justice
The case Bitcoin Fog, it is above all the trial of an era. A blessed time for hackers and all 2.0 enthusiasts who could use cryptocurrency to whiten gleefully their loot(s) using mixers like Bitcoin Fog. From 2011, millions of dollars began to pass through this platform and this lasted until April 2021, when the American authorities arrested the person they consider to be the main operator of this service. For years, scammers, dealers or ransomers were able to quietly take advantage of this structure to launder more1.2 million bitcoins according to justice.
At the time of the arrest of Roman Sterlingov in 2021, this represented $336 million but with current prices, we are more than 85 billion ! Dizzy. Investigators estimate that at least 80 million of dollars from illicit activities on the Darknet passed into the hands of the accused and it is for these facts that he was heard by the Washington DC court
The prosecution was helped by the Bitfinex hacker
At the bar, Mr. Sterlingov proclaimed his innocence and his lawyers tried to explain that he was not at all the mastermind of the operation. No, he doesn’t remember creating the domain name Bitcoin Fog and yes, he highly doubts he did it. The defense even repeated before the judge that there was no no proof accusations for which his client had to answer. Unfortunately for him, the prosecutor had a few tricks up his sleeve and he was able to count on the experience of two repentants to detail the operation of the cryptocurrency mixer and thus confuse the accused.
Ilya Lichtensteinmain accused of the historic Bitfinex hack and Larry Harmonconvicted of running the bitcoin mixing service Helix, both provided their testimonies which helped shed light on certain technical details of the case. Roman Sterlingov was ultimately convicted on all four counts after two days of jury deliberations. He will also now have to wait a few weeks before knowing the exact length of his sentence, but he faces up to 20 years of criminal imprisonment.
Gone are the days when Bitcoin & Co could easily be used to launder astronomical amounts of dirty money, now the blockchain is under surveillance and police departments around the world have figured out how to access the information. The American authorities are particularly careful about everything that happens on these cryptocurrency mixers and OFAC no longer hesitates to blacklist any individual or service that goes beyond the legal framework.