Inmate Charged With Moving $290K in Forfeited Crypto

A federal prisoner already serving time for fraud now faces new charges for allegedly moving roughly $290,000 in cryptocurrency that had been forfeited to the government, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Rossen G. Iossifov, a 53-year-old Bulgarian national, is accused of conspiring to relocate the forfeited crypto in January 2024, after his 2021 conviction for a multimillion-dollar online auction fraud scheme that targeted U.S. victims. Iossifov was serving a 111-month sentence and had been ordered to pay more than $2.64 million in restitution, plus forfeit the cryptocurrency tied to the crime.

The DOJ alleges Iossifov moved the forfeited digital assets through multiple exchanges and mixing services to keep the government from seizing them.

“Having been convicted of a widespread online auction fraud scheme targeting U.S. victims, Iossifov is now charged with moving cryptocurrency that he obtained from that crime, in violation of a court’s forfeiture order,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in a statement. “Defendants who flout lawfully entered orders and portions of their criminal sentences in prior federal cases will be charged with such obstructive conduct.”