MOSCOW, November 1 (RAPSI) – Liberty Reserve co-founder and alleged “global banker for criminals” Vladimir Kats of Brooklyn, New York has pleaded guilty to money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday.

In addition to the charges linked with his role in Liberty Reserve, Kats pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography and to marriage fraud.

Liberty Reserve is alleged to have laundered upwards of $6 billion in suspected criminal proceeds.

The company is described in the indictment as a company that “has for years operated one of the world’s most widely used digital currencies.” Incorporated in Costa Rica, the company was described as having provided “instant, real-time currency for international commerce,” and having prided itself on being “the Internet’s ‘largest payment processor and money transfer system,’ serving ‘millions’ of people around the world,” according to the indictment.

The indictment explains that Liberty Reserve users were required to make deposits and withdrawals through third-party “exchangers,” allowing Liberty Reserve to avoid collecting information about its users. The website allegedly recommended a variety of pre-approved exchangers. According to the indictment: “These exchangers tended to be unlicensed money transmitting businesses operating without significant governmental oversight or regulation, concentrated in Malaysia, Russia, Nigeria, and Vietnam.”

The indictment further alleges that at one point, “the defendants began emptying LIBERTY RESERVE’s bank accounts in Costa Rica of millions of dollars and transferring the money first to a bank account in Cyprus… and then to a bank account in Russia held in the name of another shell company.”

Kats is described in the indictment as one of the co-founders of Liberty Reserve, who left the company sometime around 2009 over a dispute with its principle founder Arthur Budovsky.

US Attorney Preet Bharara said, “[a]s a co-founder and operator of Liberty Reserve, Vladimir Kats served as a global banker for criminals, giving them an anonymous, online forum to hide the proceeds of their illegal and dangerous activities,” as quoted in the DOJ statement.

Kats pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a 20-year maximum prison sentence; one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, which carries a five-year maximum prison sentence; one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, which carries a maximum of five years in prison; one count of receiving child pornography, which carries a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, and a maximum sentence of 40 years; and one count of marriage fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, according to the statement. 

His sentencing date has not yet been set.