The founder of an internet service for funds transfers has been arraigned in United States along with six other people in a money laundering case of an astonishing magnitude, totaling $6 billion, said the authorities on Tuesday.
Arthur Budovsky is the founder of Liberty Reserve, a Web site based in Costa Rica which has been a favorite of internet scammers. He was arrested in Spain on Friday. Another defendant who has been identified as his partner, Vladimir Kats, was remanded in custody in New York.
Authorities said the operation processed at least 55 million illegal transactions globally for one million users, including 200,000 from the United States. They added that it is the biggest case of international money laundering ever seen. ”
Another article, in Nacion.com, notes that the Costa Rican Prosecutor Jose Pablo Gonzalez stated that “investigation began in 2011, when the U.S. authorities called for collaboration, because they knew that there was a company operating in Costa Rica which, apparently, received money from illegal origins.
This was the company Liberty Reserve, which allowed users to open an online account just by supplying a valid email address. Once enrolled, the company Liberty Reserve provided the user with a number of features with which it could make transactions.
The company was founded by Budovsky and closed in 2011 because it could not satisfy the Sugef regarding the legitimacy of its operations, said the prosecutor Gonzalez.
However, Budovsky continued operating using five companies called Silverhand Solutions & Technology S. A, Worldwide E-Commerce Business S .A. (Websa), Grupo Lulu Limitada, Triton Group A & A, S. A. y Cyberfuel.com, reported the prosecutors office.
Here is a great discussion from the BBC on Liberty Reserve. Click on the picture to hear the discussion.
Interesting they call them criminals but do not mention one crime they did or if anyone ever lost any money using them. They did the same thing as Paypal. (oh maybe no criminals actually have ever used paypal, ya right) I think they just competed with the other criminal systems. Western Union is the number one choice of Criminal money transfer system. It is so well know as the place for Criminals that if you want to know if something is a scam just look at how they are asking for payment. Any business or person that asks from payment through Western Union is pretty much a guaranteed scammer, yet since it operates out of the USA and pays the US tax extortion fees it is considered a good company. Go figure. I would like to know what they did that was Criminal that is any different then other money transfer companies?
Hmmm…. interesting you should find this article worthy of repeating. Seems like the height of hypocrisy for the US to make these accusations especially now. What took them so long Liberty has been in business for many years.
So we should expect the Directors of HSBC to be busted/jailed any time soon for laundering money for the Mexican drug cartels? Probably not, with the two tiered US justice system now in place. Please try and present a balanced approach on your news clips otherwise one might be forced to conclude that you have some form of political bias? Just BTW Bitcoin is one of the most incredible inventions of recent times as it should provide an alternative to the burdensome yoke of the corrupt US Financial Industry.