Bitzlato Founder Needs Help From Crypto Community To Get Release

Key Points:

• The founder of the crypto exchange Bitzlato is looking for community support.
• Anatoly Legkodymov was refused bail after being suspected of handling more than $700 million in illegal payments.
• Currently, Legkodymov’s exchange is also processing customers’ withdrawal requests.

According to Bitcoin.com, Anatoly Legkodymov, co-founder and majority shareholder of the Russian crypto exchange Bitzlato, has appealed to the crypto community for assistance, hoping to locate an American citizen ready to serve as his bond guarantor.

Legkodymov has sent a plea for help via crypto media this week. Bits.media, a Russian crypto news source, described his lawyer as saying that under US law, defendants may be freed awaiting a judgment in the case if they can acquire a bail bond.

“The crypto community knows Anatoly as a decent, law-abiding person and wants to help him get out of prison on bail until the end of the trial.”

Legkodymov was arrested in January as part of a US Department of Justice (DOJ) enforcement operation against Bitzlato.

Legkodymov first appeared in federal court in New York in mid-March, when he was ordered detained without bail after being accused of handling more than $700 million in illegal payments. He denies any involvement in money laundering in the United States.

According to the report, the member named “Anatoly Legkodymov” has been active on the Bitcointalk.org forum since 2011 and on the Bits.media forum since 2016, when the crypto entrepreneur and his associates launched their trading firm under the name Changebot, which eventually became Bitzlato.

Bitzlato, a digital currency exchange seized earlier this year by European authorities, has restored withdrawals for customers. The Hong Kong-based exchange, which has suspected connections to Russian dark web marketplaces and frauds, has announced that customers may now withdraw 50% of their assets in BTC.

The DOJ and European authorities said that Bitzlato laundered a billion dollars for Hydra, which was formerly one of the world’s major dark web marketplaces.

Bitzlato, like many other suspected and convicted digital asset illegal companies, has close links to Binance. According to the US Treasury, Binance was one of Bitzlato’s top three counterparties.

Although the exchange also had other digital currencies at the time it ceased withdrawals, it reportedly changed them to BTC to decrease the expenses involved with maintaining the multiple wallets.

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