Federal authorities and international partners dismantled E Note and seized production servers, prior server copies, full customer and transaction databases, mobile applications, and domains including e-note.com, e-note.ws, and jabb.mn, along with full ledgers, message logs, and service notes tied to more than $70 million in alleged laundering since 2017. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan unsealed an indictment naming Russian national Mykhalio Petrovich Chudnovets as the alleged operator and charging him with money laundering conspiracy carrying a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The FBI led the operation with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Michigan, the German Federal Criminal Police Office, the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, Michigan State Police, and the Michigan Cyber Command Center. Investigators prioritized cutting off live service, preserving logs and identifiers, and collecting historical artifacts to enable reconstruction of fund flow paths across wallets, intermediaries, and cashout partners and to support tracing, arrests, and asset recovery. Authorities allege E Note operated from 2011 through 2025, combined automated exchange workflows with hands-on brokering and a help desk to move funds quickly with limited customer screening, and facilitated fast conversions and brokered liquidity used by ransomware affiliates and other illicit actors. Recommended mitigation steps presented include confirming licensing and registration for fiat and crypto ramps, strengthening KYC and sanctions screening, implementing on-chain and off-chain transaction monitoring and wallet screening, and preparing playbooks for rapid legal response, data preservation, and cooperation with law enforcement.
Source: https://web3businessnews.com/crypto/fbi-dismantles-e-note-exchange/