Stanislav Moiseev, the founder of Hydra, an online black market and crypto mixing service that processed over $5 billion in cryptocurrency transactions, has been sentenced to life in prison by a Russian court.
https://www.coinlive.com/news/power-crisis-derails-russia-s-pursuit-of-ai-superpower-status-despite
The Moscow Regional Court found Moiseev and 15 accomplices guilty of organising a criminal syndicate, as well as the illegal production and sale of drugs and psychotropic substances, according to a statement from the Moscow Prosecutor's Office on 2 December.
Moiseev received a $38,100 fine (4 million rubles), while his accomplices were fined a combined total of $152,400.
Sentences for his accomplices ranged from eight to 23 years.
Additionally, properties and vehicles were seized as part of the judgment.
The convicted individuals will serve their sentences in correctional colonies under strict regimes.
Hydra, once the largest darknet marketplace in the world, accounted for 80% of all darknet-related cryptocurrency transactions in 2021.
Between its launch in 2015 and its shutdown in 2022, Hydra processed over $5.2 billion in crypto, according to the US Justice Department.
Hydra's Yearly Transaction Volumes, 2016 to 2020
The platform gained infamy for selling stolen credit card data, counterfeit currencies, and fake identity documents.
As its criminal operations became increasingly sophisticated, Hydra's crypto volume surged by 624% year-over-year from 2018 to 2020, as reported by blockchain security firm Flashpoint.
In April 2022, German authorities shut down Hydra, seizing its Bitcoin, servers, and nearly a ton of narcotics and psychotropic substances.
The marketplace had 17 million customers and 19,000 vendor accounts at the time.
Investigations by Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs had been underway since 2016.
Several individuals connected to Hydra, including Alexander Chirkov, Andrei Trunov, Evgeny Andreev, and others, have been sentenced, with appeals pending.
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