According to a federal indictment, Vitalii Antonenko, 28, was alleged in the U.S District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Tuesday with plotting to participate in computer hacking, payment card trafficking, and money laundering.
A New York City man has been indicted for allegedly stealing and selling reams of payment card data, the proceeds of which he laundered in bitcoin.@realDannyNelson reportshttps://t.co/5QvAQbZCF7
— CoinDesk (@CoinDesk) May 28, 2020
Hundreds of thousands of stolen payment cards were found by law enforcement on Vitalii Antonenko’s computers after arresting him at Kennedy International Airport in Spring 2019. Antonenko was charged with money laundering at the time.
In the recent indictment on Tuesday, prosecutors indicated a multi-pronged money-laundering plot that converted takings of stolen credit card data and sold it for tens of thousands of dollars.
The indictment stated that working with two plotters from 2014 to 2016, Antonenko reportedly accepted at least 114 bitcoin from one, sent about as much bitcoin to the other, and then obtained approximately $40,000 in cash bank deposits 10% below the market rate.
According to law enforcement officials, an undercover agent purchased a victim’s stolen card data from the first schemer in 2016. It further stated the schemer sent Antonenko 4.38 bitcoin the same day they discussed hospitality card data Antonenko still had for sale.
Antonenko also reportedly hacked a “non-profit scientific research institution” in Massachusetts. The indictment, however, does not name either victim.
