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Decentralized Hackers 'Anonymous' Promise Retribution for George Floyd, Will Expose Minneapolis Police Record of Systemic Racism

Hacktivist group ‘Anonymous’ has promised retribution against the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) for the death of George Floyd last week.

On Saturday night, May 30, it appears the group has begun to make good on their promise, as the MPD website was inaccessible for most of the night and appears to have been subjected to unauthorized access and tampering.

As reported by Bloomberg on June 1, the alleged Anonymous hack occurred on Saturday night as protests reached a fever pitch around the country. Thousands of Americans rose in protest against the unlawful and completely unnecessary killing of George Floyd and the rate of police violence aimed at black Americans.

Although police officials did not immediately wish to comment on the alleged attack, there were noticeable anti-hack additions to the website on Sunday morning. Pages on the website required captcha verification, a popular automated hack bot deterrent for access to the public pages.

Anonymous Promises to Reveal Depth of MPD’s Systemic Racial Profiling and Abuse

Anonymous posted the video below on their unconfirmed Facebook page on May 28. The video was aimed specifically at the Minneapolis police and promised to expose the department’s “horrific track record of violence and corruption”, of which they believe George Floyd is just the latest casualty.

As protestors clashed violently with US police and the National Guard over the weekend, the video gained nearly 2.5 million views on Facebook.

The video is presented by the Anonymous figure dressed in the usual dark hoodie and displaying the Guy Fawkes mask, a popular symbol of protest made famous by the movie V for Vendetta. The figure concludes the video, which details the unjustified death of George Floyd and as many as 193 others, stating that the MPD is not capable of carrying out true justice. The figure promised, “we will be exposing your many crimes to the world. We are legion, expect us.”

The power of the Anonymous group can be found in these final words, “We are legion” – a nod to their decentralized model of operation. The hacktivist operation claims to operate as a series of decentralized cells, making them difficult to track and meaning that there is no distinguishable leader with which to bargain or negotiate.

Given the depth of the information already exposed in the warning video, we can only imagine what has been uncovered in the recent alleged hack that appears to have occurred last Saturday.

US Justice Department Charges Six People for Laundering Drug Cartel Money Using Crypto

The US Eastern District Court of Virginia is pursuing legal enforcement action against six individuals for allegedly engaging in money laundering for drug cartels using cryptocurrency.

As per the court documents filed on Oct.15, the U.S Department of Justice (DoJ) alleges that Tao Liu, 45, Jingyuan Li, 47, Eric Yong Woo, 43, Jiayu Chen, 46, Jianxing Chen, 40, and Xizhi Li, 45 were part of an organized group that has been laundering millions of dollars to drug cartels in Mexico (such as Sinaloa cartel) using casinos and cryptocurrency.

The six criminals worked as an organization whose task involved assisting Mexico drug cartels in laundering millions of dollars through casinos, front companies, and cryptocurrencies.

The defendants also have been accused of using bulk cash smuggling and domestic and foreign bank accounts to launder the funds. According to the report, the group communicated most of their illicit activities among themselves through mobile messaging applications like WhatsApp and WeChat.

Tao Liu, one of the six culprits, is alleged to have made an attempt to bribe a US undercover police officer to create fake passports to enable them to enter into the United States, in return for a payment in wire transfer or cryptocurrency.

The six culprits face 14 charges including bribery, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to commit money laundering, attempted identity fraud, among others. The charges come as a result of lengthy investigations taking almost four years. During that period, law enforcement officials conducted investigations into the relationship between Asian money laundering networks and foreign drug trafficking in China, the U.S, and around the globe.

Wendy Woolcock, a special agent working under the U.S Drug enforcement administration (DEA) unit, stated:

“These individuals went to great lengths to conceal their alleged criminal activities and further schemes that enabled drug cartels to push their poisons on our communities and launder their illicit proceeds. Despite these efforts, they could not evade detection by U.S. law enforcement. DEA, along with our partners, will continue to arrest and bring to justice transnational criminals like these, who facilitate and profit from the vicious global drug trade.”

Five of the identified suspects have already been arrested while Jianxing Chen is still at large. Each of the culprits now faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison with a possible life imprisonment sentence.

Victims of BitConnect Ponzi Scheme to Benefit from the Liquidation of $57M Crypto Assets

Tagged as the largest cryptocurrency scam on American soil, the BitConnect fraud scheme siphoned more than $2 billion from investors before going underground in January 2018.

Victims might feel relieved as the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, and the U.S. Postal Investigative Service has been granted a court order to liquidate Bitconnect’s crypto proceeds.

The cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Dash, worth approximately $57 million, will be sold at current rates after being seized from Glenn Arcaro, a top American-based BitConnect promoter.

Arcaro pleaded guilty for his participation in the crypto fraud scheme, making BitConnect emerge as the biggest cryptocurrency scam to be ever charged criminally.

The Justice Department acknowledged that Arcaro is scheduled to be sentenced in January 2022 and faces imprisonment of up to 20 years.

The crypto scam never end

Crypto scams continue wreaking havoc as victims lose vast amounts of money. For instance, in 2020, a Romanian programmer confessed to helping create Bitclub Network, a Bitcoin mining Ponzi scheme that siphoned off funds valued at $722 million.

Moreover, Plus Token Ponzi scheme, a global pyramid network, was entrenched on Chinese soil and abroad. It caused a wide-ranging panic in June 2019, after some Korean and Chinese investors could not withdraw Bitcoin funds from their wallets, which was dismissed as a mere hacker attack.

Scammers have also devised ways to impersonate high-profile figures like Bill Gates and Elon Musk, as witnessed in the 2020 Twitter hack involving Bitcoin.

Nevertheless, the relevant authorities are cracking the whip in addressing the crypto scam issue, as evidenced by the liquidation of BitConnect’s crypto proceeds and the looming Arcaro’s incarceration.

Furthermore, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) raised the alarm and banned John Louis Anthony Biggatton, a former Australian BitConnect representative, from offering financial services for seven years.

Russian National Extradited to the U.S. to Face Crypto Money Laundering Charges

Alexander Vinnik, a Russian national accused of running an illegal crypto exchange BTC-e was extradited to the United States to face fraud charges.

In a statement, Kenneth A. Polite Jr., an assistant attorney, pointed out:

“After more than five years of litigation, Russian national Alexander Vinnik was extradited to the United States yesterday to be held accountable for operating BTC-e, a criminal cryptocurrency exchange, which laundered more than $4 billion of criminal proceeds.”

He added:

“This extradition demonstrates the Department’s commitment to investigating and dismantling illicit cyber activity and would not have been possible without the relentless work of the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.”

Following a 21-count superseding indictment charge in January 2017, Vinnik was put into custody in Greece in July 2017 based on a request made by the U.S.

The indictment noted that Vinnik, with his co-conspirators, administered, operated, and owned BTC-e, a significant online money laundering and cybercrime entity that permitted Bitcoin trading among users.

The report noted:

“The indictment alleges BTC-e facilitated transactions for cybercriminals worldwide and received criminal proceeds from numerous computer intrusions and hacking incidents, ransomware scams, identity theft schemes, corrupt public officials, and narcotics distribution rings.”

During the course of operation, BTC-e received Bitcoin worth more than $4 billion. Furthermore, it enhanced crimes ranging from drug trafficking to public corruption, tax refund fraud schemes, identity theft, and computer hacking.

In December 2020, Vinnik was imprisoned for five years by a Parisian court, Blockchain.News reported.

At the time, he was sentenced for money laundering as part of an organized criminal group and for providing false information about the origin of the proceeds. He was also accused of extortion and numerous cybercrimes.