Russian Rapper Given 24-month probabtion over illegal crypto-currency enterprise!

Main Issue

Just reported the other day by rapsinews.ru, the St. Petersburg-based rapper Plinofficial, a well-connected yet rather ordinary contemporary rapper with the real name of Maxim Boyko, has been served a sentence of only 24-month probation out of a possible 10 years over his involvement in money laundering via illegal, crypto-trading. In a fit of post-irony, the rapper just released an album called "Money Laundering" back on December on 17th 2021, a nod to the previous year when the FBI first began investigating into the rapper's (then) alleged partnership with international crime organization QQAAZZ whose main business is providing money laundering expertise to foreign and domestic cybercriminals, the rapper being one.

Background

On January 19th of 2020, prior to the first COVID lockdown, Maxim and his family had moved to the United States, although in posession of a considerable amount of hard currency. Maxim's love of the United States began when he began visiting the country, becoming attracted to the glorification of wealth and prosperity that American rappers are known for. He'd go on to craft his rap identity from this model, posing with the notorious symbols of luxury like the "money phone," foreign sports cars, and monetarily expense goods, donning sports clothing and designer lables to visualize his devotion to the flaunting and attainment of financial success through Hip-Hop. However, such a lifestyle is antithetical to his upbringing, coming from a working-class family in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

Upon finding Hip-Hop as a viable career path in 2010 after having dropped out of college, he moved to China for two years for "work" [where he began money laundering] and then arriving back in Russia. Finally, in 2017 he released his first album, however at the same time coming under investigate fire from American authorities in connection with his development of illega, cryptocurreny exchange.

Due to disbelief of Maxim's reason upon arriving in America, the FBI began an investigation into the origins of his currency, and on March 28th the rapper was officially detained by the FBI in Miami on the suspected charge of money laundering, the investigation uncovering several affluent Instagram postings showing him with large pads of money. It was quickly exposed that the rapper had indeed embezzeled money through illegal, Bitcoin operations beginning in 2015 to the present of 2021. After having been in prison for close to a year in America, on December 21st the The Federal Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania sentenced him to the verdict above. What's fascinating is that the group he was associated with, QQAAZZ (clarified by Europol, 2020), has been under intense transnational investigation at least since 2017, with more than 20 arrests from five countries being made since.

Further Reading

1. Extensive Biography and Sentencing Reporting [Znak, 2020]

2. Official Announcement on QQAAZZ [Department of Justice, 2020]

~ Check out Plinofficial's 2021 album below if you're interested! ~

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Still frame from DOPE (Promo)