20:29
- 29/05/2013
Ngày
hôm qua, Thứ Ba 28/5/2013, Bộ Tư Pháp Hoa Kỳ đã chính thức truy tố công ty chỉ
tệ kỹ thuật số (digital currency) Liberty Reserve với tội danh “rửa tiền (money
laundering) với số lượng lên tới 6 tỉ mỹ kim.
Hoa
Kỳ đạt được thành quả này là nhờ ở sự giúp sức và phối hợp làm việc của 16 quốc
gia khác, trong số đó có Nga, Trung Quốc, Úc, Maroc và các quốc gia Tây Âu.
Các
giới chức Bộ Tư Pháp Hoa Kỳ cho biết là Liberty Reserve đã giúp cho các tội
phạm trên khắp thế giới, bao gồm cả những kẻ lừa đảo thẻ tín dụng, ăn cắp lý
lịch, buôn lậu ma túy, và sách báo, phim ảnh khiêu dâm, … phương pháp cất giấu
tiền mà không để lại dấu vết.
Ông
Preet Bharara, Công Tố Viên Liên Bang Hoa Kỳ Khu vực Nam của New York, đã công
bố cáo buộc nói trên trong một cuộc họp báo tại Manhattan cùng với những giới
chức trách nhiệm khác, nhận định đây là dịch vụ rửa tiền trên mạng lớn nhất từ
trước tới giờ.
Trong
vòng 7 năm từ khi được thành lập vào năm 2006, và đặt bản doanh tại Costs Rica,
Liberty Reserve đã giúp khách hàng của họ “rửa” nhiều tỉ mỹ kim, với khoảng 55
triệu dịch vụ liên quan tới nhiều triệu khách hàng trên khắp
thế giới, trong đó có khoảng 200.000 khách hàng tại Hoa Kỳ.
Ông
Richard Weber, người đứng đầu bộ phận điều tra về tội ác thuộc cơ quan Internal
Revenue Services nói rằng đây là thời đại của việc rửa tiền trên mạng. Ông
Weber nói là nếu tên bố già Mafia Al Capone mà sống trong thời này thì đây là
cách mà hắn sẽ dùng để giấu tiền.
Với
Liberty Reserve, các khách hàng dễ dàng mở một trương mục, không cần chứng minh
lý lịch, căn bản là chỉ cần một địa chỉ email là đủ, và có thể chuyển những
khoản tiền to lớn mà không để lại dấu vết nào. Nói đơn giản là Liberty Reserve
cung cấp cho những kẻ phạm tội phương tiện để thoải mái tiếp tục phạm tội.
Cùng
với việc cáo buộc các tội ác nói trên, giới chức trách đã đóng cửa 5 tên miền
trong đó có miền mà Liberty Reserve sử dụng, cũng như đóng cửa và giới hạn hoạt
động của 45 trương mục ngân hàng.
Việc
đóng cửa Liberty Reserve đã tạo ra một tác động ớn lạnh đối với những khách
hàng của Liberty Reserve, mà ảnh hưởng trước tiên là họ bất thần không còn khả
năng sử dụng trương mục và tiền của mình nữa.
Mặc
dầu tin rằng hầu hết khách hàng của Liberty Reserve là những tội phạm, ông
Bharara vẫn lên tiếng kêu gọi những khách hàng chân chính hãy liên lạc với Ông
để lấy lại tiền của họ.
Người
ta tự hỏi có những tư bản đỏ Việt Nam nào dính líu đến vụ rửa tiền này./.
---------------------------------------------
Published:
May 28, 2013 209
Comments
The
operators of a global currency exchange ran a $6 billion money-laundering
operation online, a central hub for criminals trafficking in everything from
stolen identities to child pornography, federal prosecutors in New York said on
Tuesday.
The
currency exchange, Liberty Reserve, operated beyond the traditional confines of
United States and international banking regulations in what prosecutors called
a shadowy netherworld of cyberfinance. It traded in virtual currency and
provided the kind of anonymous and easily accessible banking infrastructure
increasingly sought by criminal networks, law enforcement officials said.
The
charges announced at a news conference by Preet Bharara, the United States
attorney in Manhattan, and other law enforcement officials, mark what officials
said was believed to be the largest online money-laundering case in history.
Over seven years, Liberty Reserve was responsible for laundering billions of
dollars, conducting 55 million transactions that involved millions of customers
around the world, including about 200,000 in the United States, according to
prosecutors.
Richard
Weber, who heads the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation division
in Washington, said at the news conference that the case heralds the arrival of
“the cyber age of money laundering,” in which criminals “are gravitating toward
digital currency alternatives as a means to move, conceal and enjoy their
ill-gotten gains.”
“If
Al Capone were alive today, this is how he would be hiding his money,” Mr.
Weber said. “Our efforts today shatter the belief among high-tech money
launderers that what happens in cyberspace stays in cyberspace.”
Just
as PayPal revolutionized how people shop online, making it possible to buy a
microwave oven or concert tickets with the click of a button, Liberty Reserve
sought to create a similarly convenient way for criminals to make financial
transactions, law enforcement officials said.
The
charges detailed a complicated system designed to allow people to move sums
large and small around the world with virtual anonymity, according to an
indictment, which was unsealed in federal court in Manhattan.
“As
alleged, the only liberty that Liberty Reserve gave many of its users was the
freedom to commit crimes — the coin of its realm was anonymity, and it became a
popular hub for fraudsters, hackers and traffickers,” Mr. Bharara said at the
news conference, where officials from the Justice and Treasury Departments, as
well as the Secret Service and Homeland Security Investigations, also spoke.
“The global enforcement action we announce today is an important step toward
reining in the ‘Wild West’ of illicit Internet banking. As crime goes
increasingly global, the long arm of the law has to get even longer, and in
this case, it encircled the earth.”
Liberty
Reserve surfaced as a preferred vehicle to transfer money between parties in a
number of recent high-profile cybercrimes, including the indictment of eight
New Yorkers accused of helping to loot
$45 million from bank machines in 27 countries, officials said.
Liberty
Reserve was incorporated in Costa Rica in 2006 by Arthur Budovsky, who
renounced his United States citizenship in 2011, and was arrested in Spain on
Friday. He was among seven people charged in the case; five of them were under
arrest, while two remained at large in Costa Rica. All were charged with
conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed
money-transmitting business, and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting
business. The money laundering count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in
prison, and the other two charges carry a maximum of 5 years each.
In
addition to the criminal charges, five domain names were seized, including the
one used by Liberty Reserve. Officials also seized or restricted the activity
of 45 bank accounts.
The
closing of Liberty Reserve last week seemed to have an immediate chilling
effect on its customers, who were suddenly unable to access their funds and who
posted anxious comments in underground forums, according to law enforcement
officials. Mr. Bharara said the exchange’s clientele was largely made up of
criminals, but he invited any legitimate users to contact his office to get
their money back.
The
charges outlined how the money transfer system operated, offering a glimpse
into the murky world of online financial transactions where money bounces
between accounts from Cyprus to New York in the blink of an eye.
To
transfer money using Liberty Reserve, a user needed only to provide a name,
address and date of birth. But users were not required to validate their
identity.
“Accounts
could therefore be opened easily using fictitious or anonymous identities,” the
indictment states. Prosecutors cited “blatantly criminal monikers” used by
Liberty Reserve clients, like “Russia Hackers.”
Essentially,
all a customer needed to open an account was an e-mail address.
One
undercover agent was able to register accounts under names like “Joe Bogus” and
describe the purpose of the account as “for cocaine” without being questioned,
officials said. That no-questions-asked verification system made Liberty
Reserve the premier bank for cybercriminals, prosecutors said.
The
case is significant, prosecutors said, because it attacks the financial
infrastructure used by many cybercriminals in much the same way that
drug-money-laundering prosecutions unravel the financial underpinnings of the
narcotics trade.
Dismantling
the Liberty Reserve operation was “critical because transnational criminal
organizations can succeed only so long as they can funnel their illicit
proceeds freely and without detection,” said James T. Hayes Jr., the
special-agent-in-charge for Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland
Security Investigations.
While
Liberty Reserve was incorporated outside the United States, federal officials
used a provision in the Patriot
Act to target the organization and other financial institutions with whom
they conducted business. It was the first time the provision had been used to
prosecute a virtual currency provider, officials said.
Liberty
Reserve did not take or make cash payments directly and instead used
“third-party ‘exchangers,’ ” according to the indictment. These exchangers
would take and make payments, and then credit or debit the Liberty Reserve
account, allowing Liberty Reserve to avoid collecting any banking information
on its clients and not leave a “centralized financial paper trail,” the
indictment said.
The
exchangers, the indictment said, “tended to be unlicensed money-transmitting
businesses without significant government oversight or regulation, concentrated
in Malaysia, Russia, Nigeria and Vietnam.”
The
people who accepted Liberty Reserve’s currency were “overwhelmingly criminal in
nature,” according to the indictment.
“They
included, for example: traffickers of stolen credit card data and personal
identity information; peddlers of various types of online Ponzi and
get-rich-quick schemes; computer hackers for hire; unregulated gambling
enterprises; and underground drug-dealing Web sites,” according to the
indictment.
Despite
the case against Liberty Reserve, security experts said, there were plenty of
online payment systems that allow users to move money without verifying their
identities.
“Organized
crime and terrorist groups are now financing their operations through these
anonymous payment systems,” said Tom Kellermann, a vice president at Trend
Micro, a security firm. “The financial sector no longer has a monopoly on
moving capital around the world.”
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