Liberty Reserve
| Liberty Reserve SA
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Société Anonyme |
| founding | 2007 (or 2002) |
| resolution | May 2013 |
| Reason for dissolution | Preliminary investigation |
| Seat | San José (Costa Rica) |
| management | Arthur Budovsky |
| Branch | virtual currencies |
Liberty Reserve SA was a virtual currency company with an account-based Internet payment system , in which the US dollar as "Liberty Dollar", euros in "Liberty Euro" and gold as "LR-Gold" and payments to other users are kept could send and receive. Payments once completed were irrevocable. Liberty Reserve was based in San José , Costa Rica . In May 2013 the operation was closed by law enforcement agencies.
development
The company's origins go back to New York City ; there Arthur Budovsky (alias Belanchuk) ran the company Gold Age from 2002 , which was already converting money into a digital form and transferring it worldwide. However, Gold Age neither had the necessary authorization nor had it been applied for, which is why the US financial regulator became aware of Budovsky.
In 2007 Budovsky therefore moved his residence and business activities to Costa Rica . He took his US citizenship there and reorganized his business under the name Liberty Reserve into a billion-dollar business. Costa Rica Budovsky also received a license for banking activities .
The subsidiary HYIP Liberty Reserve also followed in 2007 ; a bank based in Gibraltar . It specializes in HYIP ( high-yield investment program ) transactions and is one of the most widely used payment systems for this.
The exact business figures of the company are not officially known, as neither the company owner nor the company itself have provided any information on this.
Payment process
Deposits and withdrawals were made via so-called “exchangers” - third providers who keep a certain percentage of the total for themselves. Money could be posted to accounts across national borders without the supervision of authorities. Corresponding deposits at the exchangers were available with numerous methods, for example PayPal or credit card companies such as Visa , Mastercard as well as American Express , Western Union , bank transfer , Paysafecard , MoneyGram or Ukash . It was also possible to make a direct deposit via Bitcoin using the appropriate exchangers . Since Liberty Reserve did not require any identification or identification for accounts, anonymous use was de facto possible if incorrect data was given. According to investigating authorities, this is exactly what Liberty Reserve intended. Investigators have proven this through appropriate registrations on their part.
Allegations of money laundering and shutdown
Liberty Reserve is suspected of being used for money laundering by numerous criminal investigation agencies around the world , and is also suspected of being used for illegal activities and their payment, such as drug and drug trafficking.
During an international campaign against money laundering on May 24, 2013, Arthur Budovsky was arrested in Spain at the instigation of the New York City Public Prosecutor's Office . At the same time, police searched his property and offices in two cities in Costa Rica. In May 2016, he was sentenced by a New York court to 20 years in prison and fined $ 500,000. The operator in the USA had already been targeted by the criminal investigation, so he moved from the USA to Costa Rica in 2006 because he was facing a five-year suspended sentence in the USA for operating an illegal financial service provider (Gold Age). At the same time, the system and the Liberty Reserve website went offline as part of the FBI's “Global Liberty Reserve takedown” operation .
It is estimated that there are currently several million dollars in Liberty Reserve accounts that cannot currently be withdrawn by their operators. A possible confiscation by the authorities is not excluded. Are affected by this even legal transactions, particularly in countries where Liberty Reserve so far as Paypal served -Ersatz, since there is no Paypal in the respective countries. The public prosecutor in the USA accuses Liberty Reserve of illegally injecting six billion dollars (4.6 billion euros) into the economic cycle in its payment system. According to press reports, the judicial authorities of 17 countries were involved in the investigation.
According to the New York Public Prosecutor's Office, this is "the largest international money laundering case ever investigated in the US," said Preet Bharara, chief prosecutor in the Manhattan investigation; He also stated: One of the “hubs of cyber crime worldwide” had been dug up.
"If Al Capone were still alive, he would hide his money this way too"
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b "Favorite bank of the underworld"; Frank Hermann in the Weser-Kurier on May 30, 2013; P. 21
- ↑ x-invest.com:Liberty Reserve is the most widely used means of payment for HYIPs
- ↑ silangle: LR shutdown
- ↑ Investigators blow up money laundering ring worth billions , de.reuters.com, May 29, 2013
- ↑ bitcoinmoney.com: Bitcoin digital currency - decentralized and open source. Exchanged person-to-person, over the Internet. ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ handelsblatt.com: Money laundering à la Al Capone
- ↑ krebsonsecurity.com: Reports: Liberty Reserve Founder Arrested, Site Shuttered
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/28/liberty-reserve-arthur-budovsky-arrested-spain
- ↑ http://www.wort.lu/de/view/internetbank-fuer-iminelle-gigantischer-fall-von-geldwaesche-51a58742e4b038d84b4b09f1 Search in Luxembourg
- ↑ http://www.tageblatt.lu/nachrichten/story/Spur-nach-Luxemburg-13848077 trace to Luxembourg
- ↑ Illegal payment service Liberty Reserve: Founder pleads guilty of money laundering. heise online, February 1, 2016, accessed on May 8, 2016 .
- ↑ Founder of Liberty Reserve convicted. Handelsblatt GmbH, July 5, 2016, accessed on May 8, 2016 .
- ↑ spiegel.de: Digital currency: Liberty Reserve is offline
- ↑ ticotimes.com: Millions of dollars in limbo after shuttering of digital currency site Liberty Reserve ( Memento of the original from December 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ bbc.co.uk: Liberty Reserve digital money service forced offline
- ↑ zeit.de: USA stop digital currency because of money laundering
- ↑ handelsblatt.com: Money laundering à la Al Capone
