Berita Resmi Tentang Liberty Reserve (LR)

Millions of dollars in limbo after shuttering of digital currency site Liberty Reserve
Posted: Saturday, May 25, 2013 - By David Boddiger and L. Arias
Costa Rican agents raided the offices and home of Liberty Reserve founder Arthur Budovsky, who was arrested in Spain on Friday.



Panic spread on the Internet as word about Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk’s arrest reached users of his digital currency business Liberty Reserve, which was shut down on Thursday.

Budovsky, 39, was arrested on Friday in Spain as part of a money laundering investigation performed jointly by police agencies in the United States and Costa Rica. U.S. officials likely will seek his extradition.

Costa Rican prosecutor José Pablo González said Budovsky, a former U.S. citizen and naturalized Costa Rican of Ukrainian origin, has been under investigation since 2011 in Costa Rica for suspected money laundering using apparent shell companies he created to run Liberty Reserve.

Budovsky relocated to Costa Rica after he and partner Vladimir Kats were indicted on July 27, 2006, in New York on charges of operating an illegal financial business, GoldAge Inc. – a precursor to Liberty Reserve – from their Brooklyn apartments, according to the U.S. Justice Department. U.S. officials said the two had transmitted at least $30 million to digital currency accounts worldwide since beginning operations in 2002.

Budovsky and Kats were sentenced to five years in prison in 2007 for engaging in the business of transmitting money without a license, a felony violation of state banking law. They received five years probation.

Officials have not commented on how much money Liberty Reserve accounts handled (in U.S. dollars and euros), nor how many clients are affected by its closing. But those numbers could be higher than in the GoldAge case. As news circulated of Budovsky's arrest and the shuttering of Liberty Reserve's website, anxious clients took to chat rooms and Twitter hoping for information on the fate of their funds, some commentators claiming losses of $50,000 or more.

Neither Costa Rican nor U.S. officials have commented on the apparent seizure of the site and the fate of likely millions of dollars of funds, and with a long holiday weekend in the U.S., it's not clear when those answers will begin to emerge.

The Costa Rican daily La Nación reported that Budovsky, a naturalized Costa Rican, renounced his U.S. citizenship last year, after the joint investigation of Liberty Reserve began. The Tico Times could not independently verify that information, as Costa Rican government agencies are closed for the weekend.

In 2011, Costa Rica’s financial regulatory authority, the Financial Institution Superintendency (SUGEF), closed the company Liberty Reserve, citing a lack of transparency and accounting of funding sources, La Nación reported.

However, Budovsky continued operating the site in conjunction with other Costa Rican corporations, including Silverhand Solutions and Technology S. A, Worldwide E-Commerce Business S .A., Grupo Lulu Limitada, Triton Group A and A, S. A. and Cyberfuel.com.

The same year SUGEF ordered Liberty Reserve closed, U.S. prosecutors based in New York asked Costa Rican officials to begin investigating Budovsky and his companies. On Friday, San José prosecutors raided Budovsky’s home and offices in Escazú and Santa Ana, southwest of San José, and in the province of Heredia, north of the capital.

Investigators allege that Budovsky’s businesses in Costa Rica were used to launder funds from child pornography websites and drug trafficking.

Both GoldAge and Liberty Reserve operated under a similar system, allowing users to nearly anonymously open accounts with limited documentation of identity. Deposits are backed by gold and other precious metals, and customers could withdraw money by requesting wire transfers to accounts anywhere in the world or by having checks sent to individuals.

U.S. officials have targeted companies like GoldAge and Liberty Reserve for years, saying they are hotbeds for criminal activity including money laundering, drug trafficking and tax evasion.

“The ability to conduct transactions in digital currencies is constantly available, making digital currencies more convenient than other methods of funds transfer, which may be limited by normal business hours and international time zones. Additionally, digital currency transactions can be conducted from any location or device with Internet access,” a 2008 report by the U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center stated.

“Because most digital currencies are denominated into internationally recognized weights of precious metals, inconveniences traditionally associated with international financial transactions, such as calculating international exchange rates for another nation’s currency, are eliminated,” the report added.

Liberty Reserve, which operated without oversight from any global agency, was a convenient tool for foreign currency brokers, as it allowed them to bypass local legislation and avoid exchange rate fluctuations, particularly in developing countries. It was also a popular payment processing site for the multilevel marketing industry. But its lack of oversight also attracted organized criminal elements, prosecutors said.

“Payment in digital currencies makes it easier for traffickers to launder funds that no longer need to be placed into the traditional financial system. Payment can be immediately forwarded to an international digital currency account, perhaps in payment to the original source of supply, or further layered through multiple digital currency accounts and exchangers until reintegrated into the legitimate economy,” the National Drug Intelligence Center stated.

To open a Liberty Reserve account, users needed only to submit a name, address, email address, date of birth and occupation.

Forex Magnates, which describes itself as a “specialized forex news and research source,” called Liberty Reserve “the leading payment channel for traders in emerging and frontier markets.”

Citing a broker and analyst in Pakistan, Forex Magnates said, “Forex brokers have been benefiting from Liberty Reserve’s vast access as a payment provider, especially in countries where traders face difficulties in transferring funds. Liberty Reserve was a ‘gift’ for several traders, especially after the State Banks’ (State Bank of Pakistan) changes to international money transfers.”

Online reaction has also come from Nigeria, Malaysia and other countries.

On Saturday, digital payment site PerfectMoney.com announced it was no longer accepting U.S. citizens as customers, posting the following message: “We bring to your attention that due to changes in our policy we forbid new registrations from individuals or companies based in the United States of America. This includes US citizens residing overseas. If you fall under the above mentioned category or a US resident, please do not register an account with us.”

Other cybercurrency companies, particularly Bitcoin, are already positioned to take advantage of the possible demise of companies like Liberty Reserve.

According to cybercrime expert Brian Krebs, domain registration records for Liberty Reserve and several other digital currency exchanges on Friday began pointing to Shadowserver.org, an organization that fights global computer crime.

"The trouble started on Thursday," Krebs writes, "when libertyreserve.com inexplicably went offline. The outage set off increasingly anxious discussions on several major cybercrime forums online, as many that work and ply their trade in malicious software and banking fraud found themselves unable to access their funds."

Krebs' story cites one hacker who said the Liberty Reserve shutdown “could be the most massive ownage in the history of e-currency.”

One strong indication that the action against the site – along with at least five other digital currency exchanges – may have originated from U.S. law enforcement is that domain name servers for Liberty Reserve were changed and pointed to ns1.sinkhole.shadowserver.org and ns2.sinkhole.shadowserver.org. The sites milenia-finance.com, asiangold.com, exchangezone.com, moneycentralmarket.com and swiftexchanger.com also were directed to shadowserver. Shadowserver.org helps Internet providers target malware, but it also helps U.S. law enforcement cybercrime divisions.

Krebs reported that shadowserver.org suffered a botnet attack over the weekend, possibly in retaliation by hackers who lost funds.

Some Liberty Reserve users, however, are hoping for a different explanation, perhaps that Liberty Reserve competitors attacked the site. In the meantime, they can only sit and wait for updates, frantically clicking refresh on www.libertyreserve.com.

“[M]illions of client of Liberty reserve now worried for money around the world , plz give few more info..LR site is down now,” one anxious reader posted on The Tico Times Facebook page.

Setelah diterjemahkan ke dalam Bahasa Indonesia

Jutaan dolar dalam limbo setelah shuttering situs mata uang digital Liberty Reserve
Dikirim: Sabtu, 25 Mei, 2013 - Oleh David Boddiger dan L. Arias
Kosta Rika agen menggerebek kantor-kantor dan rumah Liberty Reserve pendiri Arthur Budovsky, yang ditangkap di Spanyol pada hari Jumat.



Panik menyebar di Internet seperti berita tentang penangkapan Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk mencapai pengguna bisnis mata uang digital nya Liberty Reserve, yang ditutup pada hari Kamis.

Budovsky, 39, ditangkap pada hari Jumat di Spanyol sebagai bagian dari investigasi pencucian uang yang dilakukan bersama oleh lembaga kepolisian di Amerika Serikat dan Kosta Rika. Para pejabat AS kemungkinan akan mencari ekstradisi.

Kosta Rika jaksa José González Pablo kata Budovsky, mantan warga negara Amerika Serikat dan Kosta Rika naturalisasi asal Ukraina, telah diselidiki sejak 2011 di Kosta Rika untuk pencucian uang yang diduga menggunakan perusahaan shell jelas dia dibuat untuk menjalankan Liberty Reserve.

Budovsky pindah ke Kosta Rika setelah ia dan pasangan Vladimir Kats didakwa pada tanggal 27 Juli 2006, di New York atas tuduhan operasi bisnis keuangan ilegal, GoldAge Inc - prekursor Liberty Reserve - dari apartemen mereka Brooklyn, menurut US Departemen Kehakiman. Para pejabat AS mengatakan kedua telah ditransmisikan setidaknya $ 30 juta untuk rekening mata uang digital di seluruh dunia sejak awal operasi pada tahun 2002.

Budovsky dan Kats dijatuhi hukuman lima tahun penjara pada tahun 2007 karena terlibat dalam bisnis transmisi uang tanpa lisensi, pelanggaran kejahatan hukum perbankan negara. Mereka menerima lima tahun masa percobaan.

Para pejabat belum berkomentar pada berapa banyak uang rekening Liberty Reserve ditangani (dalam dolar AS dan euro), atau berapa banyak klien yang terpengaruh oleh penutupan. Tapi angka-angka bisa lebih tinggi daripada dalam kasus GoldAge. Saat berita beredar penangkapan Budovsky dan shuttering dari situs Liberty Reserve, klien cemas turun ke chat room dan Twitter berharap untuk informasi tentang nasib dana mereka, beberapa komentator mengklaim kerugian sebesar $ 50.000 atau lebih.

Baik Kosta Rika maupun pejabat AS telah mengomentari perebutan jelas dari situs dan nasib mungkin jutaan dolar dana, dan dengan liburan akhir pekan panjang di AS, itu tidak jelas kapan jawaban-jawaban akan mulai muncul.

Kosta Rika La Nacion harian melaporkan bahwa Budovsky, seorang naturalisasi Kosta Rika, meninggalkan nya kewarganegaraan AS tahun lalu, setelah penyelidikan bersama Liberty Reserve mulai. The Tico Times, tidak dapat secara independen memverifikasi informasi tersebut, seperti Kosta Rika instansi pemerintah ditutup untuk akhir pekan.

Pada tahun 2011, otoritas keuangan Kosta Rika, yang Pengawas Lembaga Keuangan (SUGEF), menutup perusahaan Liberty Reserve, merujuk pada kurangnya transparansi dan akuntansi sumber pendanaan, La Nacion melaporkan.

Namun, Budovsky terus beroperasi situs dalam hubungannya dengan perusahaan Kosta Rika lainnya, termasuk Silverhand Solusi dan Teknologi S. A, Worldwide E-Commerce Bisnis S. A., Grupo Lulu Limitada, Triton Grup A dan A, SA dan Cyberfuel.com.

Pada tahun yang sama SUGEF memerintahkan Liberty Reserve tertutup, jaksa AS yang berbasis di New York meminta para pejabat Kosta Rika untuk mulai menyelidiki Budovsky dan perusahaan nya. Pada hari Jumat, San José jaksa menggerebek rumah Budovsky dan kantor di Escazú dan Santa Ana, sebelah barat daya dari San José, dan di provinsi Heredia, di utara ibukota.

Penyidik ​​menyatakan bahwa bisnis Budovsky di Kosta Rika yang digunakan untuk mencuci dana dari pornografi website anak dan perdagangan narkoba.

Kedua GoldAge dan Liberty Reserve dioperasikan di bawah sistem serupa, yang memungkinkan pengguna untuk hampir anonim membuka rekening dengan dokumentasi terbatas identitas. Deposito didukung oleh emas dan logam mulia lainnya, dan pelanggan bisa menarik uang dengan meminta transfer kawat ke rekening mana saja di dunia atau dengan memiliki cek dikirim ke individu.

Para pejabat AS telah menargetkan perusahaan seperti GoldAge dan Liberty Reserve selama bertahun-tahun, mengatakan bahwa mereka adalah lahan subur untuk kegiatan kriminal termasuk pencucian uang, perdagangan narkoba dan penghindaran pajak.

"Kemampuan untuk melakukan transaksi dalam mata uang digital terus tersedia, membuat mata uang digital yang lebih nyaman daripada metode lain transfer dana, yang mungkin dibatasi oleh jam kerja normal dan zona waktu internasional. Selain itu, transaksi mata uang digital dapat dilakukan dari lokasi atau perangkat dengan akses Internet, "sebuah laporan 2008 oleh US National Drug Intelligence Pusat menyatakan.

"Karena mata uang digital yang paling dalam mata ke bobot yang diakui secara internasional dari logam mulia, ketidaknyamanan tradisional dikaitkan dengan transaksi keuangan internasional, seperti menghitung nilai tukar internasional untuk mata uang lain negara, dieliminasi," tambah laporan itu.

Liberty Reserve, yang beroperasi tanpa pengawasan dari instansi global, adalah alat yang nyaman untuk broker mata uang asing, karena memungkinkan mereka untuk melewati undang-undang lokal dan menghindari fluktuasi nilai tukar, khususnya di negara berkembang. Itu juga tempat pengolahan pembayaran populer untuk industri multilevel marketing. Tapi kurangnya pengawasan juga menarik diselenggarakan unsur pidana, kata jaksa.

"Pembayaran dalam mata uang digital memudahkan bagi para pedagang untuk mencuci dana yang tidak lagi perlu ditempatkan ke dalam sistem keuangan tradisional. Pembayaran dapat segera diteruskan ke rekening mata uang digital internasional, mungkin dalam pembayaran ke sumber aslinya pasokan, atau lebih berlapis melalui beberapa rekening mata uang digital dan penukar sampai reintegrasi ke dalam ekonomi yang sah, "ujar National Drug Intelligence Center.

Untuk membuka rekening Liberty Reserve, pengguna hanya perlu mengirimkan nama, alamat, alamat email, tanggal lahir dan pekerjaan.

Forex tokoh terkemuka, yang menggambarkan dirinya sebagai "berita forex khusus dan sumber penelitian," sebut Liberty Reserve "saluran pembayaran terkemuka bagi para pedagang di negara berkembang dan pasar perbatasan."

Mengutip seorang broker dan analis di Pakistan, Forex taipan mengatakan, "broker Forex telah manfaat dari akses yang luas Liberty Reserve sebagai penyedia pembayaran, terutama di negara-negara di mana para pedagang mengalami kesulitan dalam mentransfer dana. Liberty Reserve adalah 'hadiah' untuk beberapa pedagang, terutama setelah Bank Negara (State Bank of Pakistan) perubahan transfer uang internasional. "

Reaksi online juga datang dari Nigeria, Malaysia dan negara-negara lain.

Pada hari Sabtu, situs pembayaran digital PerfectMoney.com mengumumkan pihaknya tidak lagi menerima warga AS sebagai pelanggan, posting pesan berikut: "Kami membawa ke perhatian Anda bahwa karena perubahan kebijakan kami melarang pendaftaran baru dari individu atau perusahaan yang berbasis di Amerika Serikat. Ini termasuk warga AS yang berada di luar negeri. Jika Anda jatuh di bawah kategori yang disebutkan di atas atau penduduk AS, jangan mendaftarkan akun dengan kami. "

Perusahaan cybercurrency lain, terutama Bitcoin, sudah diposisikan untuk mengambil keuntungan dari kemungkinan kematian perusahaan seperti Liberty Reserve.

Menurut ahli cybercrime Brian Krebs, domain pendaftaran catatan untuk Liberty Reserve dan beberapa pertukaran mata uang digital lainnya pada hari Jumat mulai menunjuk ke Shadowserver.org, sebuah organisasi yang melawan kejahatan komputer global.

"Masalahnya dimulai pada hari Kamis," tulis Krebs, "ketika libertyreserve.com misterius pergi offline. Pemadaman yang berangkat diskusi semakin cemas di beberapa forum cybercrime utama online, karena banyak yang bekerja dan ply perdagangan mereka dalam perangkat lunak berbahaya dan penipuan perbankan menemukan diri mereka tidak dapat mengakses dana mereka. "

Cerita Krebs 'mengutip salah satu hacker yang mengatakan Reserve Liberty penutupan "bisa menjadi ownage paling besar dalam sejarah e-mata uang."

Salah satu indikasi kuat bahwa tindakan terhadap situs - bersama dengan setidaknya lima penukaran mata uang digital lainnya - mungkin berasal dari penegak hukum AS adalah bahwa server nama domain untuk Liberty Reserve diubah dan menunjuk ke ns1.sinkhole.shadowserver.org dan NS2. sinkhole.shadowserver.org. Situs Milenia-finance.com, asiangold.com, exchangezone.com, moneycentralmarket.com dan swiftexchanger.com juga diarahkan untuk Shadowserver. Shadowserver.org membantu penyedia layanan Internet sasaran malware, tetapi juga membantu penegakan hukum divisi cybercrime AS.

Krebs melaporkan bahwa shadowserver.org mengalami serangan botnet selama akhir pekan, kemungkinan sebagai pembalasan oleh hacker yang kehilangan dana.

Beberapa pengguna Liberty Reserve, bagaimanapun, berharap untuk penjelasan yang berbeda, mungkin itu Liberty Reserve pesaing menyerang situs. Sementara itu, mereka hanya bisa duduk dan menunggu untuk update, panik mengklik refresh pada www.libertyreserve.com.

"[M] illions klien dari Liberty reserve sekarang khawatir uang di seluruh dunia, plz memberikan info lagi .. situs LR adalah turun sekarang," satu pembaca cemas diposting di Halaman Tico Times, Facebook.