For everyone who thought Bitcoin transactions were anonymous and untraceable, the wake up call came last Friday as the U.S. Justice Department traced hundreds of Russian #cryptocurrency transactions in its indictment of 12 Russian GRU officers.
“The Conspirators facilitated bitcoin payments using the same computers that they used to conduct their hacking activity…The Conspirators funded the purchase of computer infrastructure for their hacking activity in part by “mining” bitcoin…the Conspirators acquired bitcoin through a variety of means designed to obscure the origin of the funds. This included purchasing bitcoin through peer-to-peer exchanges, moving funds through other digital currencies, and using pre-paid cards…” and on and on.
The moral of the story is, if it’s digital, it will be found.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/us/politics/mueller-indictment-russian-intelligence-hacking.html
The indictment in full: https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/80-netyksho-et-al-indictment/ba0521c1eef869deecbe/optimized/full.pdf?action=click&module=Intentional&pgtype=Article