The plot thickens. Did the supposed Twister Money developer arrested in The Netherlands have ties to a Russian safety company? Is a job in 2017 for a corporation with tenuous connections to Russia sufficient to justify the arrest? As Bitcoinist informed you and reiterated, there needed to be another excuse that FIOD and the OFAC arrested a easy Twister Money coder. Is that this one it? We don’t have official affirmation but, but it surely is likely to be.
Apparently, the alleged Twister Money developer was Aleksey Pertsev, CEO of PepperSec and resident of The Netherlands. The details about his supposed ties to Russian intelligence comes courtesy of Kharon. The corporate “offers information and analytic instruments to optimize the core features of economic crimes compliance applications, together with KYC, screening, and investigations.”
How Are PepperSec And Twister Money Associated?
Their report states that Twister Money “runs on software program code developed by PepperSec, Inc.” What and the place is that firm precisely?
“PepperSec is a Delaware-registered company with its major place of work in Seattle, Washington, in line with a 2020 SEC submitting. PepperSec’s web site describes the corporate as a safety consulting agency of white hat hackers.”
Presently, the web site in query incorporates an “About Us” that claims:
“We’re skilled safety engineers seasoned by a few years of sensible expertise and deep understanding of applied sciences. We’re able to battle to make your undertaking as safe as potential.”
Truthful sufficient, however…
How Is PepperSec Related To Russia?
Apparently, Kharon reviewed “private and firm profiles” and decided that Aleksey is PepperSec’s CEO. Thus far, so good. The place’s the smoking gun, although? Again to Kharon’s report:
“In 2017, Pertsev was an info safety specialist and developer of sensible contracts for Digital Safety OOO, in line with an archived model of the corporate’s web site reviewed by Kharon. Digital Safety OOO is a Russian entity designated by the U.S. Treasury Division in 2018 for offering materials and technological assist to the FSB, Russia’s major safety company. Treasury alleged that, as of 2015, Digital Safety labored on a undertaking that might improve the offensive cyber capabilities of Russia’s intelligence companies.”
That’s tenuous, to say the least. And under no circumstances associated to Twister Money. Nevertheless, a caveat is that the opposite two “PepperSec’s founders — U.S.-based Roman Storm and Russia-based Roman Semenov” haven’t been touched. Thus far. So, the case is likely to be in opposition to Aleksey Pertsev alone.
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How Does All Of This Relate To Twister Money?
For this half, we’ll flip to quotes from infamous bitcoin enemy “Fortune.” The journal interviewed Nick Grothaus, vice chairman of analysis at Kharon, who mentioned:
“You had this man working for [Digital Security OOO] and doing pen testing himself, after which Treasury designated the corporate for serving to the FSB’s hacking capabilities.”
Okay, we didn’t know concerning the “pen testing” half. Nevertheless, how does this relate to Twister Money? To reply that query the journal resorts to Alex Zerden, “an adjunct senior fellow on the Middle for a New American Safety,” who mentioned:
“This opens up plenty of credibility points for the builders of Twister Money. That is fairly profound info that informs why the U.S. authorities and Dutch authorities have taken sure actions.”
Does it, although? “There appears to be a extra complicated and sophisticated image that takes extra time to unravel,” Zerden added. And we agree. That’s why the EFF requested for readability across the Twister Money state of affairs. As Bitcoinist already mentioned, “perhaps the OFAC has a greater case and the developer is responsible of one thing else. If that’s the case, with “clarifying info and decreasing the paradox” the OFAC would have prevented this entire state of affairs.”
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