Two Charged in Connection With Cryptocurrency Money Laundering Service That Allegedly Laundered Over $389 Million in Unlawful Transactions

Coordinated International Operation Led to Takedown of Defendants’ “AudiA6” Money Laundering Infrastructure PHILADELPHIA – Ruslan Igorevich Tkachuk, 37, and Alexander Vladimirovich Ledenev, 25, both residing in Batumi, Republic of Georgia, were arrested on Wednesday and charged by criminal complaint with one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and one count of sting money laundering, arising from their alleged operation of “AudiA6,” a cryptocurrency money laundering service believed responsible for laundering more than $389 million in cryptocurrency. A coordinated international takedown of AudiA6 and its infrastructure was conducted in conjunction with yesterday’s arrests. The takedown resulted from parallel investigations by the United States Secret Service, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (“IRS-CI”), Europol, Eurojust, and other international law enforcement partners, including Australia, Canada, France, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Poland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. A joint action took place and involved the following: Three properties were searched; Servers and domains linked to the criminal infrastructure were targeted in the United States, Iceland, Germany, and France; Telegram accounts used by the network were blocked; Cryptocurrency assets were frozen and digital devices were seized; The clear web and dark web websites of the AudiA6 service and the Dark2Web cybercrime forum, one of the sites where AudiA6 advertises its services, were replaced with a law enforcement seizure banner. Tkachuk, a Ukrainian national, and Ledenev, a Russian national, are currently in the custody of Georgian authorities. The U.S. Attorney’s Office will seek the defendants’ extradition to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The criminal complaint in this case alleges that Tkachuk and Ledenev are senior members of the AudiA6 organization, who manage the cryptocurrency money laundering service and the Dark2Web cybercrime forum. The complaint references a Dark2Web advertisement in which AudiA6 explicitly offers to conceal and disguise the source of any prospective customer’s cryptocurrency that would otherwise be traceable to criminal sources, for a fee of up to five percent of the amount of funds being laundered. Through blockchain analysis, law enforcement has determined that approximately 10,333 Bitcoin (“BTC”), valued at approximately* $389,747,417 at the time of the transactions, was deposited to AudiA6 cryptocurrency wallets since the service was launched in 2021. Using blockchain analysis tools and financial records obtained during the investigation, law enforcement reviewed the sources of funds directly deposited to these AudiA6 wallets. Out of the approximately 10,333 bitcoin deposited, approximately 393.39 BTC (valued at around $19,234,331 at the time of the transactions) were received directly from known darknet markets, ransomware organizations, cybercrime services, and other illicit sources, while additional funds were deposited indirectly from illicit sources into AudiA6 wallets. If convicted, the defendants each face a maximum possible sentence of 20 years of incarceration.