Liberty Reserve Owner Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk Is Arrested

Liberty Reserve, one of the major e-currency processors has been shut down. Most users who tried accessing their accounts since the evening of 24th May 2013 have not been able to access the website.
As at the time of writing this report the official Liberty Reserve blog is still functional but no official statement has been released.
I sincerely hope this is not another egold saga which caused major losses to internet entrepreneurs who have embraced the ecurrency as the easiest way of accepting payments.
According to bubblews.com,  the 39-year-old owner of the Liberty Reserve payment processor provider --Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk, was arrested in a money laundering investigation/operation on Friday in Spain which was conducted by police officers from USA and Costa Rica.

Budovsky Belanchuk- is a Costa Rican citizen but Ukrainian by origin, has been under investigation since 2012 because of his online payment processor company LIBERTY RESERVE. New York asked a request to the prosecutor’s office in Costa Rica to conduct a local investigation against Belnachuk leading to the raid of his house and offices in Escasa Santa Ana located at the southwest of San Jose in Heredia. According to the reports, Budovsky's businesses in Costa Rica seemingly were financed by money from a drug trafficking and child pornography websites.

U.S. Justice Department said that last July 27, 2006, Budovsky and his business partner Vladimir Kats were charged by the state of New York on operating an illegitimate financial business, GoldAge Inc., from their Brooklyn rented apartment. There are at least $30 million was transmitted to their digital currency accounts worldwide since they day they operated their online business on 2002 without a license.

From their online business “Liberty Reserve” they had transmitted at least $30 million to digital currency accounts worldwide since beginning operations in 2002.Finally, the two online financial criminals—“Budovsky Belanchuk” and his partner Kats were arrested, and sentenced in prison for five years and onwards.