Month: January 2023

At a press conference in Washington on Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department and Treasury Department announced they have charged Bitzlato Ltd. with money laundering, and arrested its founder in Miami. Anatoly Legkodymov, 40, was arrested in Miami on Tuesday night and will appear in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. He is the founder, majority owner and senior executive of Bitzlato Ltd., which is based in Hong Kong.

Bitzlato allegedly allowed its users to use its services with loose restrictions, allowing users to create accounts based on false information, which they used to engage in transactions with an “illicit” black market called Hydra Market. Hydra Market is a black market platform where narcotics, stolen personal and financial information and money laundering services can be procured; the Justice Department said it is the “largest and longest running darknet market in the world.” Hydra was shut down by a cooperative effort between U.S. and German law enforcement agencies last April. Bitzlato users exchanged an estimated $700 million in cryptocurrency for illegal activities with Hydra until it was closed. The Justice Department alleges Legkodymov knew of the criminal activities carried out by Bitzlato’s users, disregarding warnings from other executives about the dangers of allowing these activities to continue because he did not want to sacrifice profits. Bitzlato’s website has been shut down with agencies throughout the world taking aim at its infrastructure.

U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York said: “Institutions that trade in cryptocurrency are not above the law and their owners are not beyond our reach. As alleged, Bitzlato sold itself to criminals as a no-questions-asked cryptocurrency exchange, and reaped hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of deposits as a result. The defendant is now paying the price for the malign role that his company played in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.”

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Microsoft informed company employees on Wednesday that 10,000 layoffs are coming by the end of third quarter. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made the announcement in blog post on the company’s website, saying some employees would given their notice Wednesday.  The company said the layoffs will affect nearly 5% of Microsoft’s 200,000-strong global workforce.

Nadella blamed the decision on the need to align Microsoft’s cost structure with its revenue and where it sees customer demand. The blog post read: “As we saw customers accelerate their digital spend during the pandemic, we’re now seeing them optimize their digital spend to do more with less. We’re also seeing organizations in every industry and geography exercise caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one ..At the same time, the next major wave of computing is being born with advances in AI, as we’re turning the world’s most advanced models into a new computing platform.”

Nadella promised employees being let go would be treated with dignity, respect and in accordance with U.S. employment law or, for overseas hires, the laws of their respective countries. He said the software company would take a $1.2 billion charge in the second quarter to cover costs related to severance liabilities. The company said the job cuts, changes to its hardware portfolio and consolidation of its real estate holdings would result in a $1.2 billion charge.

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Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey announced on Tuesday an arrest warrant has been issued for Brian Walshe in the murder in the death of his wife, 39-year-old Ana Walshe, who has been missing since New Year’s Day.

Morrissey announced the warrant in a video posted to YouTube on Tuesday: “Early in this investigation the police developed probable cause to believe her husband, Brian Walshe, age 47, had mislead police investigators on material matters important to the search for Ana Walshe. He has plead not guilty to those charges and is currently being held at the Norfolk County house of correction.  A continued investigation has now allowed police to obtain an arrest warrant, charging Brian Walshe with the murder of his wife.”  Morrissey said additional evidence was likely to be presented at arraignment at Quincy District Court.

Ana Walshe worked in real estate before her disappearance from Cohasset, Mass., where she lived with her husband. Last week, Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Lynn Beland told the court that a bloody knife had been found in the home where Ana and Brian Walshe lived. Additionally, Beland told the court that Walshe had failed to disclose the fact that he spent $450 at Home Depot to purchase a tarp and cleaning supplies after his wife vanished.

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No arrests have been made in a shooting that took place after an event honoring Martin Luther King Jr. in Florida on Monday, in which one person was killed and seven others were wounded.

According to St. Lucie County Chief Deputy Brian Hester, after the MLK Jr. parade on Monday at about 5:20 p.m., a disagreement occurred at an after-parade party, which led to the shooting. One of the victims, an unidentified 29-year-old woman who was attending the party with her 6-year-old daughter, has since died from their injuries. At a press conference, Hester said, “It’s really sad in a celebration of someone who represented peace and equality that a disagreement results in a use of guns and violence to solve that disagreement. And then so many innocent people who were injured or hurt and were not part of the disagreement as well.”

Sheriff Ken Mascara said at a news conference on Tuesday: “What was a shooting investigation has turned into a murder investigation.”  The sheriff’s office also told the outlet that the parade was attended by more than 1,000 people. Two deputies were at the scene and quickly responded to the shooting at the party, according to the sheriff’s office. Chief Deputy Hester told reporters on Tuesday that evidence supports that this shooting was between two local rival gangs: “It was mass chaos as you can imagine when shots rang out. There were a thousand plus people here at the event, and as the shots rang out, people were just running in all directions.”  Those with information related to this incident are asked to contact St. Lucie County detectives or call Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at 1-800-273-8477.

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