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 an organization with tenuous connections to Russia sufficient to justify the arrest? As Bitcoinist told 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 perhaps.
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 “supplies information and analytic instruments to optimize the core features of monetary crimes compliance packages, 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 workplace in Seattle, Washington, in keeping with a 2020 SEC submitting. PepperSec’s web site describes the corporate as a safety consulting agency of white hat hackers.”
At the moment, the website in question contains 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 challenge as safe as attainable.”
Truthful sufficient, however…
How Is PepperSec Linked To Russia?
Apparently, Kharon reviewed “private and firm profiles” and decided that Aleksey is PepperSec’s CEO. Up to now, 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 good contracts for Digital Safety OOO, in keeping 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 help to the FSB, Russia’s major safety company. Treasury alleged that, as of 2015, Digital Safety labored on a challenge that may improve the offensive cyber capabilities of Russia’s intelligence providers.”
That’s tenuous, to say the least. And on no account associated to Twister Money. Nonetheless, a caveat is that the opposite two “PepperSec’s founders — U.S.-based Roman Storm and Russia-based Roman Semenov” haven’t been touched. Up to now. So, the case is perhaps towards 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 notorious bitcoin enemy “Fortune.” The magazine interviewed Nick Grothaus, vice chairman of analysis at Kharon, who stated:
“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 in regards to the “pen testing” half. Nonetheless, 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 stated:
“This opens up a variety 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 complex image that takes extra time to unravel,” Zerden added. And we agree. That’s why the EFF asked for clarity across the Twister Money state of affairs. As Bitcoinist already said, “possibly the OFAC has a greater case and the developer is responsible of one thing else. If that’s the case, with “clarifying info and lowering the paradox” the OFAC would have prevented this complete state of affairs.”
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