AudiA6 crypto – Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia say two men living in Batumi, Georgia — Igorevich Tkachuk and Alexander Vladimirovich Ledenev — ran a cryptocurrency money laundering operation called “AudiA6” that allegedly mixed nearly $400 million to conceal illegal proc
The message was blunt, almost casual: don’t care.
Months before federal authorities moved in. agents working with prosecutors told a cryptocurrency exchange run by a shadowy organization that they wanted to swap “dirty” digital currency—Bitcoin and other virtual assets tied to fraud and other crimes. The exchange operator replied with a shrug when asked whether the coins were from scams or stolen funds. and the laundering continued.
On Thursday, prosecutors in Philadelphia announced they have charged two men with running that operation—one of the largest crypto laundering schemes described in the case, prosecutors said it involved nearly $400 million.
Igorevich Tkachuk. 37. of Ukraine. and Alexander Vladimirovich Ledenev. 25. of Russia. were arrested Wednesday in Georgia. where both live in the coastal city of Batumi. according to U.S. Attorney David Metcalf. Prosecutors said they will seek extradition to Philadelphia to face money laundering charges.
Metcalf said the men were part of an organization that dubbed itself “AudiA6.” Prosecutors described two main functions for the group: managing a cybercrime forum known as Dark2Web. where users could strike deals to commit crimes against targets for money. and running a cryptocurrency-based money laundering service meant to make the origins of virtual currency harder for authorities to trace.
Over the last five years, prosecutors said in a criminal complaint, AudiA6 received $389 million from customers to launder. The group allegedly “mixed” the virtual currency in exchange for a commission fee. and prosecutors said at least $20 million of those deposits came directly from accounts associated with illicit actors on the dark web.
Prosecutors also said millions more appeared tied to similarly suspicious groups through indirect transactions. including accounts linked to ransomware and to people known to have received stolen funds online. Investigators further alleged AudiA6 received at least $10 million in profit. The complaint says the group sometimes charged higher commission fees for smaller transactions.
The case hinges on what federal agents claimed they did while testing the system from the inside.
According to the complaint, federal authorities conducted six undercover transactions with AudiA6 between December 2022 and May 2026. In each. agents said. they messaged the exchange—typically in Russian—that they wanted to exchange “dirty” digital currency such as Bitcoin. Prosecutors said AudiA6 took the funds, “mixed” them, and returned the washed proceeds minus a commission.
One example in the complaint came in April, when an agent in Philadelphia sent a message to the AudiA6 exchange saying, “is [Bitcoin] from scam OK? Stolen bitcoin…” The operator replied, “don’t care.”
Prosecutors said AudiA6 then mixed about $5,000, keeping a fee of about $300.
A few weeks later, the complaint says another agent reached out from Philadelphia and asked about laundering proceeds tied to selling cocaine online.
“Is it ok or are the risks too high?” the agent asked, according to the complaint.
“Everything like that needs to go through a mixer,” the operator wrote back, prosecutors said. The exchange allegedly laundered about $5,100 worth of bitcoin, keeping $400 as a fee.
AudiA6’s pitch to customers, prosecutors say, was that mixed transactions would be untraceable. But investigators alleged the group wasn’t actually operating with the separation it promised.
In the complaint, prosecutors said AudiA6 was “not actually sending and receiving from distinct, unconnected sources.” Instead, they wrote that transactions could be directly traced through exchange records.
Neither Tkachuk nor Ledenev had attorneys listed in court records Thursday.
If convicted, each defendant could face up to 20 years in prison, prosecutors said.
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