A 21 year old man has been arrested by the New South Wales Police Force in Australia.
He is alleged of money laundering through the Liberty Reserve payment system. Officials did not identify the man in a news release announcing the arrest, but said he did not apply for bail and remains in custody.The police said in a statement that the man was charged with one count of knowingly dealing with proceeds of crime with intent to conceal, one count of unauthorized function with intent to commit a serious offense and five counts of fraud. The official statement:Last month, police officers from the Fraud and Cybercrime Squad formed Strike Force Kaye to investigate a large number of electronic devices, which were found following a search warrant at a property in The Rocks on 10 May 2013. Following a month-long investigation, police yesterday (Monday 10 June 2013) charged a 21-year-old man after he appeared in Central Local Court on other matters.
The New South Wales Police Force did not specifically name Liberty Reserve in its announcement, but they are describing it as a “Costa Rica-based currency transfer and payment processing company that was shut down by an overseas government last month.”Last month the United States and Costa Rica shut down the Liberty Reserve payment processor in result of a joint investigation. Liberty Reserve was very popular among fraudsters and was mainly used for money laundering, Ponzi schemes and other cybercrime activity. According to official reports, Liberty Reserve has laundered more than $6 billion for various scammers and criminals.
Together with the shut down of the payment processor, there have also been arrests among the operators of Liberty Reserve: Arthur Budovsky; Vladimir Kats, also known as “Ragnar”; Ahmed Yassine Abdelghani, also known as “Alex”; Allan Esteban Hildago Jimenez, also known as “Allen Garcia”; Azzeddine El Amine; Mark Marmilev, also known as “Marko” and “Mark Halls”; and Maxim Chukharev.In the U.S. indictment, Liberty Reserve is alleged to be guilty in the crimes of credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, child pornography, and narcotics trafficking.
