Bitzlato says reports of founder’s deal with prosecutors are inaccurate

Representatives of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato denied reports that Anatoly Legkodymov intends to plead guilty and strike a deal with prosecutors.

In a ForkLog interview they clarified that from April 14 to June 13 negotiations between Legkodymov’s lawyers and the U.S. prosecutor may indeed take place. However, this does not mean that guilt has been or will be admitted.

Legkodymov’s interests in the United States are represented by the law firm Venable LLP. Earlier, the lawyers filed a bail petition, which was denied.

“Anatoly Legkodymov has not pleaded guilty and is not cooperating with the United States Department of Justice or any American government agency,” — said Mark Shamel, a partner at Venable LLP.

According to Bitzlato representatives, the court document published shows “an attempt by the authorities to ease their workload rather than to build an evidentiary basis”.

In January, the U.S. Department of Justice arrested the founder of Bitzlato Anatoly Legkodymov on charges of laundering $700 million linked to the darknet marketplace Hydra. A day later, the service’s operation was suspended.

Subsequently, news emerged of the arrest of former chief executive Mikhail Lunev, marketing manager Alexander Goncharenko, the Monolithos DAO implementation contractor Pavel Lerner and the platform’s system administrator.

As ForkLog lawyers later stated, all arrested individuals “were not part of the team, but were either contractors or consultants; some of them never participated in the company’s core activities.”

According to Europol, in total the exchange converted assets connected with criminal activity worth around €1 billion ($1.08 billion).