US charges two Russians in hack of Mt Gox crypto exchange

The United States has charged two Russian nationals in the hack of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange Mt Gox, one of the world's earliest, biggest and most widely publicized alleged bitcoin heists.

The department in a statement said Alexey Bilyuchenko, 43, and Aleksandr Verner, 29, were charged with conspiring to launder approximately 647,000 bitcoins from their hack of Mt. Gox, which collapsed in 2014 after losing what was then worth about half a billion dollars in cryptocurrency.

The event was one of the first signs of how vulnerable exchanges cryptocurrency users employ to transfer their digital assets into traditional cash were to committed cybercriminals. The industry has since suffered a string of massive thefts.

Reuters was not immediately able to locate contact details for Bilyuchenko or Verner. The pair's whereabouts weren't immediately clear.