Indian National Sentenced for International Money Laundering Scheme

According to PANews, a U.S. District Judge, Gregory Van Tatenhove, has sentenced Anurag Pramod Murarka, an Indian national, to 121 months in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering. Murarka, aged 30, operated as an international virtual currency supplier under the aliases 'elonmuskwhm' and 'la2nyc.' Court documents reveal that from April 2021 until September 29, 2023, Murarka ran an international money laundering operation. He advertised his services on dark web markets as a money laundering service. Clients contacted him through encrypted messages to negotiate exchange rates. Once rates were agreed upon, Murarka, based in India, instructed clients to send cryptocurrency to specific addresses. He then arranged for cash delivery to his U.S.-based employees through a complex, pre-arranged Indian hawala operation. Murarka's network of employees across the U.S. and overseas collected cash from his hawala connections. The cash was packaged in various ways, including being hidden between book pages and sealed in multiple envelopes, before being mailed to clients. Murarka charged a service fee, using part of it to bribe employees and accomplices. He was aware that many of his clients were involved in criminal activities, such as computer hacking and drug trafficking, and knew his business facilitated these crimes by concealing the origins of illegal activities. Murarka and his accomplices laundered over $20 million in total.