According to New York Times and BBC News reports, US Justice Department has called it the 'largest international money-laundering prosecution in history', involving approximately one million users and over 55 million illegal transactions. They reported that police raids in 17 countries, including US, Spain and Costa Rica on Friday scooped up Liberty Reserve's owners, operators and its computer hardware.
BBC reported that the case's documents allege that seven people involved in running Liberty Reserve set up the digital cash service as a 'criminal business venture' designed specifically to 'help criminals conduct illegal transactions and launder the proceeds of their crimes'.The service's operators would face charges of money laundering and operating an unlicenced money transmission system. In addition, BBC said 45 bank accounts used by the service have been seized and action has been taken to take over the assets of 35 other sites that fed funds to Liberty Reserve for laundering.
