Ikut bersedih jika ada teman2 yang masih mempunyai balance di Liberty ReservS E N S O R. saat ini LR mungkin tidak akan kembali lagi karena pemiliknya sudah ditangkap oleh polisi...
beritanya:
Costa Rican arrested in Spain for alleged financial crimes
Costa Rican authorities raided suspect´s home and offices in San José and Heredia.
Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk, 39, on Friday was arrested in Spain as part of a money laundering investigation performed jointly by police agencies in the United States and Costa Rica.
Costa Rican prosecutor José Pablo González said Budovsky, a Costa Rican citizen of Ukrainian origin, has been under investigation since 2011 for money laundering using a company he created in the country called Liberty Reserve.
Local investigations began after a request from a prosecutor’s office in New York. On Friday, San José prosecutors conducted raids in Budovsky's house and offices in Escazá, Santa Ana, southwest of San José, and in the province of Heredia, north of the capital.
Budovsky's businesses in Costa Rica apparently were financed by using money from child pornography websites and drug trafficking.
New York conviction
According to records from the U.S. Justice Department, on July 27, 2006, Budovsky and a partner identified as Vladimir Kats were indicted by the state of New York on charges of operating an illegal financial business, GoldAge Inc., from their Brooklyn apartments.
They had transmitted at least $30 million to digital currency accounts worldwide since beginning operations in 2002.
The digital currency exchange, GoldAge, received and transmitted $4 million between Jan. 1, 2006, and June 30, 2006, as part of the money laundering scheme.
Customers opened online GoldAge accounts with limited documentation of identity, then GoldAge purchased digital gold currency through those accounts; the defendants' fees sometimes exceeded $100,000.
Customers could choose their method of payment to GoldAge: wire remittances, cash deposits, postal money orders or checks.
Finally, the customers could withdraw the money by requesting wire transfers to accounts anywhere in the world or by having checks sent to any identified individual.
Budovsky and Kats were sentenced to five years in prison for engaging in the business of transmitting money without a license, a felony violation of state banking law, but got probation.
According to a Spanish newspaper, a person named “Arthur Budovsky” age 39, was arrested yesterday in Spain as a part of a money laundering investigation performed jointly by police agencies in the United States and Costa Rica. According to to José Pablo González, Budovsky is a Costa Rican citizen of Ukrainian origin. Prosecutors conducted raids in his house and offices in Escazá, Santa Ana, southwest of San José and in the province of Heredia, north of the capital.
Budovsky has been under investigation since 2011 for money laundering using a company he created in the country, which is “Liberty Reserve”. According to the U.S. Justice Department on July 27, 2006 Budovsky and a partner identified as Vladimir Kats were indicted by the state of New York on charges of operating an illegal financial business, GoldAge Inc., from their Brooklyn apartments.
They transmitted funds worth at least $30 million to digital eCurrency accounts worldwide since the beginning of the operations ins 2001. The exchanger received and transmitted $4 million between Jan. 1 2006, and June 30, 2006 as part of the money laundering scheme. Accounts of customers were opened with limited documentation of identity, then the exchanger purchased virtual funds through those accounts. The fees sometimes exceeded $100,000.
Budovsky and Kats were sentenced to five years in prison for engaging in the business of transmitting money without being licensed. This is a violation of the states banking laws. According to the newspaper they did got probation. How the story will end this time is still not clear. One thing is 100% sure: He will not get away with probation again.
Recent update on situation:
Earlier this day I reported about the recent governmental krackdown on the LibertyReserve eCurrency and money laundering website. Now some more information has been made public by the Costa Rica government. There also was a report on TV already about the arrest of the people behind Liberty Reserve.
As we know by now, not only the owners have been arrested, also computers, phones and company documents have been seized. This means that this whole thing is gonna be a lot more interesting than expected. There is a possibility that there might happen world wide arrests, as the seized devices and documents contain solid evidence for criminal activity.
Everyone who was involved with HYIPs and other criminal online activity and did not protect his identity good enough should start to seriously worry now and probably even already try to find a good lawyer in case anything will happen. Especially if you operated an HYIP, exchanger or if you are a big Ponzi pitchman you should start to be very cautious.
This is the news article that came up with the video (thanks to donothingmoney for translation):
This condominium (the one seen on the video) located in Santa Ana has been part of a series of raids that were conducted by the “OIJ” money laundering division in conjuction with the D.A. against organized crime.
The diligence was conducted in Spain after a man by the name of Arthur Budovsky with Costa Rican nationality was arrested.
Him and another ten person are being investigated for multinational electronic fraud in the range of several millions of dollars. This was allegedly achieved through the creation of an electronic currency.
… Yes this website gives the the chance as a member to open an account where you can deposit money and then use it to make payments or withdraw it as cash.
… This enterprise was closed due to the investigation that were taking place here and in the USA, it fires its employees in 2011, basically because they didn’t get the license from the deputy.
In Costa Rica servers, documents, computers and telephones were seized. On top of that vehicles Roll Royce and Jaguar valued at a bit less than half of million us dollars.
… The case remains open in Costa Rica and the assistance of the United States has been requested. In this case it was the United Sates who asked to international collaboration to do these raids.
On another hand the man arrested in Spain remains under the jurisdiction of the United States.