Bulgarian Accused of Attempting to Transfer Confiscated Cryptocurrency Worth 300 000.

District Court in Lexington with attempting to transfer nearly $300,000 in cryptocurrency that had been seized by the U.S. government. The digital assets had been confiscated as part of a money laundering case.

According to prosecutors, Yosifov previously served a 111-month prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Investigators said he operated a cryptocurrency exchange account known as RGCoins, along with other accounts registered in Bulgaria and Romania. These accounts were allegedly used to post fraudulent advertisements for expensive non-existent items on online auction websites.

After victims made payments, the funds were converted into cryptocurrency and transferred to overseas money launderers, including Yosifov, according to the prosecution.

Over a three-year period, the scheme laundered nearly $5 million in cryptocurrency and targeted at least 900 U.S. citizens.

As part of his sentence, Yosifov was required to transfer approximately $290,000 worth of cryptocurrency to a U.S. federal government account.

Prosecutors allege that he attempted to move those funds from an account on the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken and convert them into fiat currency for transfer to a foreign bank account.

The attempt was detected, leading to additional charges of concealing or transferring property to prevent its seizure, aiding and abetting, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.