Agencies from the United States, Australia, France, Poland, Georgia, Iceland, Canada, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom participated in the investigation, which was coordinated through Eurojust and Europol, according to forklog.com.
As part of the operation, two alleged administrators of the platform were detained. Law enforcement conducted searches at three addresses, shut down 25 domains, seized more than 30 servers, and confiscated more than 80 vehicles and several properties.
Authorities also froze €692,000 in cryptocurrency and seized an additional €86,000.
The nature of the crime
According to Eurojust, the service was used by ransomware operators. They transferred stolen cryptocurrency to the group’s wallets and, about an hour later, received the “laundered” funds back. Their origin was concealed by a chain of transactions. The commission ranged from 3% to 10%.
European authorities also linked AudiA6 to the Dark2Web darknet forum, where cybercriminals advertised illegal services and communicated with one another.
Investigators identified more than 6,000 KYC records linked to “money mule” accounts. The suspects registered these accounts using stolen or purchased identities and used Russian-speaking intermediaries to launder criminal proceeds through crypto exchanges.
According to Chainalysis, since 2021, AudiA6 wallets have received 10,333 BTC, worth approximately $389 million.
