Binance Credited With Helping Take Down Ukraine Crypto Laundering Group

Binance's internal data security team aided Ukrainian cyber cops in busting an alleged cryptocurrency money laundering operation in June, according to a joint press release published Tuesday.

• Ukrainian authorities say the unnamed group distributed ransomware, washed hacker funds to the tune of $42 million and built a robust darknet laundering network during its two-year run.
• Three suspects were arrested in late June 2020. At the time, the Ukrainian Cyber Police force said it seized $200,000 in computer equipment, weapons, ammunition, cash and "digital evidence" linking the trio to the two-year laundering campaign.
• On Tuesday, Cyberpolice confirmed Binance had a hand in cracking the alleged ring. Department Chief Oleksandr Hrynchak cited the cryptocurrency exchange's fraud detection tactics and crypto tracing techniques in a press release.
• Binance's in-house "Sentry" division worked with blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs to detect and then identify the group, the exchange said in a statement.
• The laundering bust appears to be Binance's first successful collaboration under its "Bulletproof Exchangers" initiative to detect and disrupt illicit crypto actors. Binance said it "allocated additional resources" to the ongoing anti-laundering project earlier this year.