Bitcoin Exchange Was a Nexus of Crime

A Russian man was charged with overseeing a black market Bitcoin exchange that helped launder billions of dollars and stood at the nexus of several criminal enterprises, according to a federal indictment.

The indictment, which was unsealed in California on Wednesday, gave a long list of illegal activities that the Bitcoin exchange, known as BTC-E, facilitated, including ransomware fraud, identity theft, drug trafficking and public corruption.

The Russian man charged in the case, Alexander Vinnik, 37, was arrested in Greece on Tuesday. Mr. Vinnik had “directed and supervised” BTC-E’s operations, according to the indictment, and is said to have had co-conspirators.

Criminals who stole or extorted Bitcoin from their victims would transfer the virtual currencies to BTC-E, which would then convert the virtual currency into traditional currency using a host of bank accounts registered under shell companies.

Justice Department officials said that the exchange appeared to have been responsible for laundering more than $4 billion for criminals, with most of the money turned into American dollars and Russian rubles.

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The site served 700,000 customers around the world, the officials said.

Users of BTC-E had noted this week that the exchange’s website was down, though the site’s administrators had said on social media that they were working to get it back up.

The arrest of Mr. Vinnik came shortly after law enforcement authorities in the United States and Europe took down two big online drug markets in which Bitcoin was the primary currency