Two men living in Batumi, Georgia, have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to launder monetary instruments tied to a crypto mixing service called AudiA6. The platform allegedly processed more than 10,333 BTC, roughly $389 million, since it began operating in 2021.
Ruslan Igorevich Tkachuk, a 37-year-old Ukrainian national, and Alexander Vladimirovich Ledenev, a 25-year-old Russian national, each face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. The arrests on June 11 were part of a coordinated international enforcement operation involving the US Secret Service and Europol, among other agencies.
How AudiA6 allegedly worked
AudiA6 reportedly charged fees between 3% and 5.5% for this service, with some reports suggesting rates climbed as high as 10%.
The platform didn’t operate in isolation. According to the charges, AudiA6 maintained connections to the Dark2Web cybercrime forum, where illicit activities were negotiated. The mixing service was embedded in a broader ecosystem that connected ransomware operators, darknet market vendors, and other cybercriminals who needed to clean their earnings.
