Georgia has dismantled the transnational cybercrime group AudiA6, which laundered $389 million

The Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office, the U.S. Secret Service, the Central Bureau for Combating Cybercrime of the Republic of Poland, and the Łódź District Prosecutor’s Office conducted a large-scale international special operation organized with the assistance of Eurojust and Europol. The coordinated efforts resulted in the arrest on June 10 in Adjara of two senior members of the powerful organized crime group “AudiA6” — Ukrainian Ruslan Tkachuk and Russian Alexander Ledenev, whose extradition is already being sought by the U.S. Department of Justice. They face up to 20 years in prison for laundering $389 million of criminal proceeds. 

About 100 law enforcement officers from the three countries participated in joint operations at dozens of locations across Georgia. During searches of individuals, their homes, vehicles, and workplaces, investigators seized important electronic documentation and digital evidence. In addition, to block channels for laundering illicit proceeds, law enforcement officials seized bank accounts, high-value real estate, and 173 vehicles, which, according to the investigation, were purchased with dirty money.

According to investigations conducted in various countries, the transnational criminal group known as “AudiA6” has been operating continuously online since 2022. The perpetrators provided professional money laundering services for cybercriminals worldwide, laundering cryptocurrency obtained through illegal means, and helped conceal digital traces of criminal activity from law enforcement agencies. Between 2022 and 2025 alone, members of the “AudiA6” organization successfully laundered crypto assets worth several hundred million U.S. dollars, reaping colossal profits from the operation. In addition, the gang administered the well-known hacker web forum “Dark2Web,” which was used as a global platform for communication between cybercriminals and for advertising illegal services.

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania David Metcalf specified that Ruslan Igorevich Tkachuk, 37, and Alexander Vladimirovich Ledenev, 25, both residents of Batumi, Georgia, were arrested on Wednesday and charged in a criminal case with one count of conspiracy to launder money through the activities of “AudiA6.” They laundered over $389 million in cryptocurrency. 

The coordinated international dismantling of AudiA6 and its infrastructure was carried out simultaneously with the arrests in Georgia by the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI), Europol, Eurojust, and other international law enforcement partners, including Australia, Canada, France, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Poland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The joint actions included the following: 

• Searches of three locations, servers, and domains linked to the criminal infrastructure in the United States, Iceland, Germany, and France; 

• Telegram accounts used by the network were blocked;

•  Cryptocurrency assets were frozen, and digital devices were seized; 

• The AudiA6 service’s websites on the open and dark web, as well as the Dark2Web cybercrime forum—one of the sites where AudiA6 advertises its services—were replaced with a banner announcing the seizure by law enforcement agencies. 

Tkachuk, a citizen of Ukraine, and Ledenev, a citizen of Russia, are currently in custody of Georgian authorities. The U.S. Attorney’s Office will seek the extradition of the defendants to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The criminal complaint alleges that Tkachuk and Ledenev are senior members of the AudiA6 organization who run a cryptocurrency money laundering service and the Dark2Web cybercrime forum. The case involves an advertisement for Dark2Web in which AudiA6 directly offers to conceal and disguise the source of any potential client’s cryptocurrency that could otherwise be traced to criminal sources, for a fee of up to 5% of the laundered funds. Through blockchain analysis, law enforcement determined that since the service launched in 2021, approximately 10,333 bitcoins (“BTC”) worth approximately $389,747,417 at the time of the transactions. 

Using blockchain analysis tools and financial records obtained during the investigation, law enforcement agencies verified the sources of the funds deposited directly into these AudiA6 wallets. Of the approximately 10,333 Bitcoin deposited, approximately 393.39 BTC (worth approximately $19,234,331 at the time of the transactions) was received directly from known darknet markets, ransomware organizations, cybercrime services, and other illicit sources, while additional funds were indirectly deposited from illicit sources into the AudiA6 wallets. 

If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. 

This was reported by Georgia’s First Channel and the U.S. Attorney General’s Office.

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