Millions of dollars moved from WEX to the sanctioned Bitcoin exchange Suex

The analytics firm Chainalysis found that the U.S.-sanctioned Bitcoin exchange Suex, among other things, processed transactions with the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange WEX worth several million dollars.

Earlier, experts reported that more than $50 million in Bitcoin had been sent to Suex from addresses belonging to BTC-e, the domain of which authorities in the United States seized in the summer of 2017. WEX was the successor to BTC-e and assumed its debt obligations.

Chainalysis stressed that there is no evidence of any corporate relationships between Suex, BTC-e and WEX.

“However, the volume of funds transferred from these exchanges to the exchanger, including after their official closure, suggests that there were closer relationships between the platforms than between ordinary clients who do not know each other,” the analysts said.

“Lawyer: billions in the BTC-e case remain on servers in the US and on the WEX exchange.”

In the social networks of Suex co-owner Yegor Petukhovsky, a photo of him in the WEX office in Moscow was found. We requested comment from the entrepreneur, but as of writing no response had been received.

On September 22, a Telegram channel appeared, whose author began publishing discrediting information about people connected with Suex and the EXMO exchange. Within less than a day the channel became inaccessible.

However, the author managed to publish a list of 13 transactions (hash of one is invalid) totaling 654.1 BTC, allegedly sent from WEX to one of the exchange’s addresses. Most transfers date to February 2021.

Crystal Blockchain product development director Kirill Chikhradze, in a ForkLog commentary, confirmed that all listed transactions were indeed sent from WEX wallets.

Visualization of transactions from the WEX exchange to the Suex exchanger wallet. Data: Crystal Blockchain.

The Suex wallet mentioned by the Telegram channel – 1Edue8XZCWNoDBNZgnQkCCivDyr9GEo4x6 – is a Binance deposit address. All outgoing transactions from it go to the exchange’s hot wallet, Chikhradze added.

Data: Crystal Blockchain.

Indefibank CEO Sergey Mendeleev also examined one of the transactions to this wallet. He said that on March 14, 2019, from one of the exchange’s BTC-e addresses 3,501 BTC were sent. Of these, 2,201 BTC went to an unknown non-custodial wallet. The remaining funds, including those in the Telegram-channel transactions, ended up on various exchanges, including a Binance address.

“I do not see the point in studying the transactions now. The more interesting question is who has the keys to the wallets. Vinnik cannot – he is in prison. Vasilyev is also not an option – he is in pre-trial detention,” said Sergey Mendeleev.

Earlier, on September 21, the U.S. Treasury added legal entities and the exchange’s website to the sanctions list, along with 25 addresses on the Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether networks.

The agency says the platform processed funds for operators of at least eight ransomware programs, scam projects, darknet marketplaces and the now-defunct BTC-e exchange. Assets tied to cybercriminals accounted for up to 40% of Suex’s turnover.

The United States imposed sanctions on the Bitcoin exchange Suex with offices in Moscow and Saint Petersburg

According to Elliptic, since 2018, Suex processed cryptocurrency transactions totaling at least $934 million. More than $370 million of them are linked to illicit activity.

Binance previously said that it had removed identified Suex exchange accounts in line with its internal security measures.

On August 11, at Warsaw airport, police detained the former WEX owner Dmitry Vasilyev at Kazakhstan’s request, where he is charged with fraud.

A month later, on September 15, an unknown person withdrew 100 ETH from the exchange wallet (worth $345,385 at the time) to the Binance exchange.

On September 20, all remaining funds in the wallet, totaling 9,916 ETH (a little over $30 million), were sent to a new address. As of writing, the transaction is awaiting confirmation due to the low fee set by the sender, the transaction is awaiting confirmation.

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