Costa Rica based digital currency service “Liberty Reserve” has been shut down and law enforcement authorities have arrested the founder Arthur Budovsky from Spain.
According to some preliminary reports Budovsky was arrested on suspicion of money laundering. It suggests that Liberty Reserve was the front to launder money for child pornography websites and drug trafficking. Police had raided several properties in Costa Rica and seized his computer servers.
Liberty Reserve allowed users to open accounts and transfer money and as compared to other payment processing services it only requires a name, date of birth and working email address. Users can charge their account using credit card, money order, bank wire or other services.
Though many used this service for legitimate means such as sending money to friends and making payments where PayPal isn’t available, but according to researchers Liberty Reserve was also one of the most popular forms of payment in the cyber crime underground.
Thousands of users who were holding their money in the Liberty Reserve account are now in a big a trouble, they are asking the concerned authorities that if their assets have been seized or is there any method to get their money back.
In Pakistan due to the non-availability of PayPal many freelancers use Liberty Reserve as their preferred mode of payment. If you are affected by this incident, do tell us your story via comments.
