Three Russian citizens were charged with money laundering for their role in operating Blender.io and Sinbad.io crypto mixing services.
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At the end of 2024, a US court authorized the Department of Justice to sell 69,370 bitcoins from "the largest cryptocurrency seizure in history."
At bitcoin's current price, just under $92,000, these bitcoins are worth nearly $6.4 billion, and crypto outlets are reporting that DOJ officials have said they're planning to proceed with selling off the assets consistent with the court's order. The DOJ had reportedly argued that bitcoin's price volatility was a pressing reason to push for permission for the sale.
Ars has reached out to the DOJ for comment and will update the story with any new information regarding next steps.
Β© NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto
The US Justice Department today announced it filed an antitrust lawsuit against "six of the nation's largest landlords for participating in algorithmic pricing schemes that harmed renters."
One of the landlords, Cortland Management, agreed to a settlement "that requires it to cooperate with the government, stop using its competitors' sensitive data to set rents and stop using the same algorithm as its competitors without a corporate monitor," the DOJ said. The pending settlement requires Cortland to "cooperate fully and truthfully... in any civil investigation or civil litigation the United States brings or has brought" on this subject matter.
The US previously sued RealPage, a software maker accused of helping landlords collectively set prices by giving them access to competitors' nonpublic pricing and occupancy information. The original version of the lawsuit described actions by landlords but did not name any as defendants.
Β© Getty Images | Bloomberg
Google has offered up its own proposal in a recent antitrust case that saw the US Department of Justice argue that Google must sell its Chrome browser. US District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled in August that Google had acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search, with the DOJ then proposing a number [β¦]
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LockBit is believed tobe responsible for at least $500 million in ransom payments alone.
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A bitcoin investor who went to increasingly great lengths to hide $1 million in cryptocurrency gains on his tax returns was sentenced to two years in prison on Thursday.
It seems that not even his most "sophisticated" tacticsβincluding using mixers, managing multiple wallets, and setting up in-person meetings to swap bitcoins for cashβkept the feds from tracing crypto trades that he believed were untraceable.
The Austin, Texas, man, Frank Richard Ahlgren III, started buying up bitcoins in 2011. In 2015, he upped his trading, purchasing approximately 1,366 using Coinbase accounts. He waited until 2017 before cashing in, earning $3.7 million after selling about 640 at a price more than 10 times his initial costs. Celebrating his gains, he bought a house in Utah in 2017, mostly funded by bitcoins he purchased in 2015.
Β© Cemile Bingol | DigitalVision Vectors
Welcome to Google's nightmare.
Late yesterday, the US Department of Justice filed its proposed final judgment, officially recommending a broad range of remedies to end Google's search monopoly.
Predictably, Google is not happy with the DOJ's plan, which requires the company to sell its Chrome browser. It also retains the option of forcing Google to divest Android if competition doesn't increase from behavioral remedies, including bans on exclusive default deals with other browsers and device makers. Additionally, Google is prohibited from building any new browsers and must fund an education campaign that shows people how to switch search engines and potentially even pays people to switch. Google may also be restricted from using its data scale advantage to benefit its AI products.
Β© Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg
Federal prosecutors have charged five men with running an extensive phishing scheme that allegedly allowed them to compromise hundreds of companies nationwide, gain non-public information, and steal millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.
The charges, detailed in court documents unsealed Wednesday, pertain to a crime group security researchers have dubbed Scattered Spider. Members were behind a massive breach on MGM last year that cost the casino and resort company $100 million. MGM preemptively shut down large parts of its internal networks after discovering the breach, causing slot machines and keycards for thousands of hotel rooms to stop working and slowing electronic transfers. Scattered Spider also breached the internal network of authentication provider Twilio, which allowed the group to hack or target hundreds of other companies.
Key to Scattered Spiderβs success were phishing attacks so methodical and well-orchestrated they were hard to detect even when sophisticated defenses were implemented. Microsoft researchers, who track the group under the name Octo Tempest, declared it βone of the most dangerous financial criminal groups.β
Β© Getty Images
The United States Department of Justice argued Wednesday that Google should divest its Chrome browser as part of a remedy to break up the companyβs illegal monopoly in online search, according to a filing with the U.S District Court of the District of Columbia. Ultimately, it will be up to District Court Judge Amit Mehta [β¦]
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The five alleged hackers are accused of stealing millions of dollars in crypto, and corporate data from several victims all over the world.
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