A Bulgarian national has been charged with stealing $290,000 in government-seized cryptocurrency while serving 121 months in prison for helping launder millions stolen from American fraud victims.
53-year-old Rossen G. Iossifov appeared in federal court in the Eastern District of Kentucky this Wednesday on charges of removal of property to prevent seizure and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
“Iossifov’s deliberate attempt to remove and launder lawfully seized funds is a direct challenge to our justice system and a blatant disregard to his victims’ rights,” said U.S. Secret Service (USSS) Special Agent Robert Holman in a Thursday press release.
“We are committed to ensuring that victims of online fraud receive justice, and that individuals who attempt to circumvent lawful court orders are held accountable.”
Prosecutors said that in January 2024, while behind bars for a 2021 conviction, Iossifov allegedly conspired with others to move $290,000 in cryptocurrency from a seized account, routing it through multiple crypto exchanges and mixing services to keep the funds out of the government’s hands.
That previous conviction arose from the defendant’s ownership and operation of RG Coins, a cryptocurrency exchange in Sofia, Bulgaria, whose clients included Romanian members of the Alexandria Online Auction Fraud Network (a fraud ring that victimized at least 900 Americans).
Network members posted fabricated advertisements on Craigslist and eBay for high-value goods (typically vehicles) that did not exist, and once victims paid, converted the funds into cryptocurrency, which Iossifov then transferred to foreign money launderers.
Evidence showed Iossifov tailored his business to accommodate criminal clients, offering the fraudsters favorable exchange rates and allowing members of the criminal ring to trade cash for cryptocurrency without providing identification or documentation of the source of funds.
According to court documents, he collected more than $184,000 after laundering nearly $5 million for four network members in under three years.
The court ordered Iossifov to pay more than $2.6 million in restitution to victims of the earlier scheme and to forfeit the cryptocurrency at issue in the new case. If found guilty of the new charges, Iossifov faces a maximum of 25 years in prison.
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