A former IT manager at Liberty Reserve pleaded guilty in a Manhattan federal court to “conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.”
Maxim Chukharev was an IT pro at the company, which was incorporated in Costa Rica in 2006 and provided digital currency services. Claiming to be the “largest payment processor and money transfer system” on the internet, Liberty Reserve helped users complete anonymous illegal transaction and launder their money.
A press release put out by the U.S. Attorney's Office called the company “the bank of choice for the criminal underworld.” Authorities shuttered it in May 2013, the same month Chukharev, who helped maintain the company's technological infrastructure, was arrested in Costa Rica.
He and six other defendants faced charges in a U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where Chukharev pleaded guilty Tuesday. He will be sentenced January 30
