Two senior members of the AudiA6 cryptocurrency money laundering organization, Ruslan Igorevich Tkachuk, 37, and Alexander Vladimirovich Ledenev, 25, were arrested in Batumi, Georgia, on Wednesday. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania charged both with one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and one count of sting money laundering.
According to the criminal complaint, AudiA6 advertised services to conceal the criminal origin of crypto assets in exchange for a 5% commission. The organization also operated the Dark2Web cybercrime forum, where it promoted its laundering services. Blockchain analysis identified 10,333 BTC deposited into AudiA6 wallets since 2021, valued at over $389 million at the time of transactions. Approximately $19 million worth of Bitcoin came directly from known illicit sources such as darknet markets and ransomware groups.
The investigation was conducted in parallel by the U.S. Secret Service, IRS Criminal Investigation, Europol, Eurojust, and law enforcement agencies from Australia, Canada, France, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Poland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The coordinated operation resulted in property searches, seizure of servers and domains, blocking of Telegram accounts, freezing of crypto assets, and placement of seizure banners on the group’s websites. Both suspects remain in Georgian custody pending extradition to the United States, where they face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
