CipherTrace claimed "wrongful arrest" of Russian Sterlingov

CipherTrace's Investigations and Intelligence Division said the arrest of Russian Sterlingov, who is accused of money laundering, was unlawful

The tracking tools used in the case were misused, the document said

Head of Investigations and Intelligence at CipherTrace (a company owned by Mastercard) Jonelle Still presented a report in support of the defense of Russian Roman Sterlingov, who was arrested in the United States in a criminal case related to the cryptocurrency mixing service Bitcoin Fog.

The document details Still's opinion on the effectiveness of data obtained by the prosecution from the blockchain transaction tracking service Chainalysis.

At the heart of the report is the assertion that the data provided by Chainalysis cannot be validated online.

"The tracking tools used in this case were misused to draw the erroneous conclusion that Mr. Sterling was the organizer of the Bitcoin Fog when no such evidence exists on the network," the report said.

In April 2021, a court in the US state of Los Angeles, California, arrested Roman Sterlingov, a Russian-Swedish citizen, on money laundering charges. He was charged with three counts of money laundering, money transfers without a license, and operating a money transfer business without a license.

Following his arrest, the US Department of Justice released a statement saying that Sterlingov, who allegedly ran Bitcoin Fog since 2011, was involved in laundering more than 1.2 million bitcoins, valued at $335 million at the time.

CipherTrace claimed wrongful arrest of Russian Sterlingov

CipherTrace claimed "wrongful arrest" of Russian Sterlingov

The tracking tools used in the case were misused, the document said

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