Financial monitoring agency goes after illegal crypto miners

Kazakhstan authorities have accused a Russian citizen of illegal business activity while staying in the country. Over three years he earned more than $397,500, a sum that is considered a large-scale financial crime, according to the Agency for Regulation and Development of Financial Market (ARDFM). 

«The Kostanay Department of the ARDFM has stopped the illegal activity of cryptocurrency exchange shops KZobmen.com and KZobmen Ltd.,» the agency said in a statement.

The local court has arrested the property of the accused man worth $187,739, including his digital assets at the Binanсе crypto exchange.

The agency said that it managed to identify the perpetrator during the investigation against five crypto exchange shops in the Kostanay region. KZobmen.com, 1WM.KZ, Kazobmen.ru, WM007.KZ and KZ-EXCHANGE.COM worked with illegal crypto miners outside of the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) and made a lot of money.

Currently, there are eight cryptocurrency exchanges registered with the AIFC. Nineteen more crypto exchanges are expected to be registered soon.