A group of Russian military intelligence officers indicted on Friday as part of an ongoing investigation into interference in the 2016 US presidential election would use bitcoins to finance their operations.
In the newly released prosecution, prosecutors say the 12 appointed secret services have hacked computer networks and e-mail accounts owned and used by the US Democratic Party, including the Democratic candidate's presidential campaign Hillary Clinton.
Details were included under the conspiracy charge to launder money. According to the indictment, the defendants "conspired to recycle the equivalent of $ 95,000 through a network of structured transactions to capitalize on the perceived anonymity of cryptocurrencies like bitcoins."
"In an effort to pay for their efforts around the world … the defendants paid with cryptocurrency," Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told a news conference.
While the accused allegedly used other currencies, including the US dollar, "they mainly used bitcoins by buying servers, registering domains and otherwise making payments to support hacking."
It is said that payments have been made for companies in the United States, with some of those funds that are due to a bitcoin mining operation.
The indictment explains:
"In addition to bitcoin mining, the conspirators have acquired bitcoins through a variety of means designed to obscure the origin of the funds, which included the purchase Bitcoin through the stock exchanges, the transfer of funds through other digital currencies and the use of prepaid cards and the assistance of one or more third-party exchanges that facilitated multi-level transactions through currency exchange platforms digital devices that offered greater anonymity. "
The defendants would use more" dedicated e-mail accounts "to track information about bitcoin and facilitat transactions and payments, the added version. In addition, the offending officials transferred bitcoins using the same computers used in the hacking of various e-mail accounts
The indictment is the last to exit the ongoing investigation – politically explosive – on the interference of elections in Russia and the possible involvement of members of the presidential campaign of US President Donald Trump.
Robert Mueller, a former director of the Federal Investigation Office, was appointed in May 2017 to lead the special investigation of the board, which drew Trump's wrath, which he vehemently denied any collusion on election deception.
Rod R osenstein image via Shutterstock
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