DOJ arrests two men linked to AudiA6 crypto laundering service

Two men were arrested in Batumi, Georgia, on June 11 for operating AudiA6, a crypto mixing service that laundered more than 10,333 Bitcoin since 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The arrests were part of a coordinated international operation involving the U.S. Secret Service and Europol.

Ruslan Igorevich Tkachuk, a 37-year-old Ukrainian, and Alexander Vladimirovich Ledenev, a 25-year-old Russian, each face up to 20 years in prison on charges of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. The platform charged fees between 3% and 5.5%, with some reports putting the rate as high as 10%.

AudiA6 didn't operate alone. The charges link it to the Dark2Web cybercrime forum, where ransomware operators and darknet vendors negotiated. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis described AudiA6 as a prolific laundering operation within the cybercriminal ecosystem.

The June 11 action went beyond arrests. Authorities seized servers and domains tied to AudiA6's infrastructure. Associated crypto assets were frozen, cutting off the platform's operational capacity.