Key Takeaways
- French and U.S. authorities shut down a website and arrested two suspects for targeting 17,000 women.
- Investigators seized over $780,000 in bitcoin and ether, exposing illicit crypto-funded markets.
- Prosecutor Laure Beccuau urged victims to contact police as joint enforcement tracks crypto trails.
Crypto-Driven Financial Scheme
French investigators have confiscated more than $783,000 (€700,000) in cryptocurrency during a joint French-U.S. operation that shut down Nudeleaksteens, an online platform selling stolen intimate images of more than 17,000 women and underage girls.
Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau announced on Oct. 7 that the seized digital assets spanned multiple cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ether, litecoin, and USDT.
Cryptocurrency served as the core financial infrastructure for the criminal operation, incentivizing users and monetizing stolen content. According to a report, users were rewarded with cryptocurrency in exchange for providing real names, locations, ages, and occupations to build targeted dossiers on individual victims.
The network sold “packs” of explicit photos and videos harvested through hacked social media accounts, online grooming schemes and revenge porn. As part of the law enforcement raid, two brothers, ages 21 and 25, were arrested Tuesday in northern France.
Identified as the primary administrators of the site, the two men face charges related to running the illicit network and distributing stolen media. The operation was conducted in close coordination with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
American authorities noted that the platform explicitly distributed child sexual abuse material, including a standalone album containing more than 6,200 private nude files targeting predominantly American teenagers and adults.
Beccuau reaffirmed that French and U.S. authorities remain committed to tracking digital currency trails to dismantle cybercrime networks and protect victims of illicit online distribution.
