Arthur Budovsky, a Ukrainian-American who later became a Costa Rican citizen, was convicted to 20 years in prison for his leadership in a powerful structure dedicated to laundering hundreds of millions of dollars.
He was arrested in Spain in 2013 and after a long legal battle, he was extradited to E.E.U.U. in 2014, to finally receive his sentence by the Federal Court of Manhanttan last Friday, for basing the operations of the company Liberty Reserve in Costa Rica to commit crimes that allowed the laundering of 250 million dollars, using bitcoins.
According to Preet Bharara, America’s attorney, Budovsky
created a bitcoin empire to facilitate grand scale money laundering for criminals around the globe. Despite all his efforts to escape justice, including basing his operations in Costa Rica, renouncing his American citizenship and assuming the Costa Rican one, Budovsky has now been held accountable for his violations to the laws in the United States”.
Liberty Reserve reached its peak point between 2009 and 2013 with transactions for over $ 300 million dollars a month.
The rest of the accused are Vladimir Kats (sentenced to 5 years in prison), Azzeddine El Amine (sentenced to 3 years), Mark Marmilev and Maxim Chukharev (still waiting for their sentences).