AudiA6 crypto launderers arrested, network taken down by police

A number of police forces worldwide, including the Australian Federal Police (AFP), have succeeded in taking down the long-standing AudiA6 cryptocurrency money laundering network, running from Georgia.

AFP said the operation was led by the Europol law enforcement coordination agency, with AudiA6 laundering more than $542 million between 2022 and 2025.

Australian authorities said they became involved in the case in November last year, when investigators uncovered activity by two foreign administrators in Georgia.

AudiA6 laundered part of the ransom paid by an unnamed Australian business attacked by ransomware in 2024, AFP said.

The ransomware group involved in the attack was not disclosed by AFP, which said the matter is still under investigation.

A web board posting from September 2022, sighted by iTnews advertising the cryptomixing services by a user calling themselvers AudiA6, mentions six different forums to which deposits were made, to establish bona-fides.

One of the forums in the posting is called D2W, which may be an abbreviation for Dark2Web, which was taken down by the police in the recent operation.

The AudiA6 poster also said their service was the best cryptomixer, as it would simply take "dirty cryptocurrency from you and give you a clean one".

Several cryptocurrency options were available, and AudiA6 asked for a three percent commission on Binance, an exchange platform.

The web board posting also listed Telegram and Jabber messenger contact details, and website domains, one of which was partly anonymised but with the registrant said to be in Voronezh, Russia.

AudiA6 would launder crypto currencies for criminals, charging commissions between three to 10 percent, AFP said.

Two individuals are now in custody in Georgia following a police raid.

The pair, named as Ruslan Igorevich Tkachuk and Alexander Vladimirovich Ledenev, of Ukrainian and Russian nationalities respectively, have been charged by the United States for criminal money laundering.

They face extradition to the US where, if convicted of the alleged crimes, each faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison.

As part of the raid and joint police operation, 25 domains were seized along with over 30 servers, and approximately $1.24 million in cryptocurrency and digital assets; 80 vehicles and several properties in Georgia were also seized.

Europol said AudiA6 was one of the most trusted crypto laundering services used by ransomware gangs.

Polish police started the unwinding of AudiA6 after the arrest in September 2025 of a Ukrainian national whose money laundering activities were connected to group.

During the investigation, police identified over 6000 know your customer (KYC) records, linked to money mule accounts.

Many of these were connected to Russian-speaking intermediaries that were specifically recruited to move criminal proceeds through cryptocurrency exchanges.