An initiative group of Wex clients uncovered on the platform’s hot and cold wallets stolen funds totaling more than $250 million.
During its own investigation, the victims’ group’s coordination center audited the exchange’s transactions. They also identified accounts through which part of the funds were laundered.
The criminal case regarding the founders’ fraud has been transferred from Novocheboksarsk to the Moscow Investigative Department.
‘All information has been handed to the investigators and formally attached to the materials of the criminal case, which will enable the necessary investigative actions and will serve as evidence in court,’ the initiative group said.
Currently, the coordinators are seeking the remaining affected Wex clients, including foreigners, to file a civil suit.
Wex is the successor to the BTC-e trading platform.
In the summer of 2017, Wex bought BTC-e client accounts after its closure and the seizure of the latter’s accounts. Wex assumed BTC-e’s debt obligations and by April 2018 paid 20% of the total amount.
In the same month, the then-CEO of Wex, Dmitry Vasilyev, and former DPR militant Dmitry ‘Moryachok’ Khavchenko signed a memorandum of understanding to sell the exchange.
In July 2018, the deal transferring ownership to Khavchenko moved to the final stage. Later Khavchenko registered his daughter Darya as the official operator of the exchange — the Singaporean company World Exchange Services.
In November 2019, BBC reported that the involvement in the purchase of Wex and further withdrawals was by Russian entrepreneur Konstantin Malofeyev, owner of the Tsargrad group of companies.
According to the incriminating testimony of the BTC-e (Wex) ‘Red Admin’ Aleksei Bilyuchenko, the users’ funds were forced, under threats, to be transferred to the personal wallets of FSB officers of the Russian Federation, in particular Anton Nemkin.
The owner of the MoneyPolo payment system, Sergey Maizus, suggested that the exchange’s funds were laundered, among other channels, through Neklis-Bank, owned by Natalia Kasperskaya.
For more on the collapse of BTC-e, read ForkLog’s special material:
FBI, ‘DPR’ and $1 billion – the founder of BTC-e explains what is happening with the legendary exchange
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