Chris Tarbell, a former FBI detective who helped shut down Silk Road and hacktivist group LulzSec, who is now a partner at contractor Naxo Labs.

Naxo Labs

Three of the men who took down the infamous dark web drug marketplace Silk Road have launched a company helping cops trace cryptocurrency and conduct complex dark web investigations.

Called Naxo Labs, it officially launches on Thursday and is helmed by former FBI agents Chris Tarbell and Tom Kiernan, alongside Matt Edman, an ex-FBI contractor. They all were instrumental in finding Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road founder, closing the site and seizing its $1 billion in bitcoin. The fourth cofounder, David Franzel, is a cybercrime expert and longtime government contractor, with expertise in investigating crimes in the Middle East.

Despite only setting up earlier this year in Manhattan, the company has already penned an $8 million deal with Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), government contract records show. Naxo is providing software to the agency’s Cyber Crimes Center, though the company wouldn’t offer details on the work. (ICE hadn’t responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.) Tarbell said the company also has contracts with the Securities Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, along with a number of government customers that the four cofounders previously worked with in their former roles at the New York consultancy Berkeley Research Group (BRG).

Naxo also has a business helping individuals recover cryptocurrency locked on hard drives. That’s to cater to those who have forgotten the password to their crypto wallets, such as German developer Stefan Thomas, who last year claimed to have $240 million in bitcoin on a hard drive that he couldn’t access. Thomas still cannot access the funds, but has been in touch with the Naxo team this month to discuss a potential hack into the wallet, Edman said. No deal has been signed, however, and Thomas hadn’t responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

Wallet recovery is more of a side gig, said Edman. The main customer base will be federal law enforcement agencies who need deep technical expertise to dig into data on encrypted phones and laptops, carry out dark web investigations and trace crypto.

“We were doing the crypto stuff before there was Chainalysis,” said Tarbell, referencing the $8.6 billion cryptocurrency tracking firm that has numerous contracts with American law enforcement. He claimed that a long history in developing bespoke tools for government agencies was what set it apart from the competition.

It’ll also do private investigations for individuals and corporate entities, though each client will go through an ethics check to make sure the company isn’t profiting from illegally obtained cryptocurrency. “If a dark web drug lord comes over and says, ‘I’ve lost the password to my wallet,’ we probably don’t want that,” Edman said.

Tarbell, who also led investigations into hacktivist collective LulzSec in the 2010s, is also moving into podcasts. He’s cohosting a show with Hector Monsegur, a former member of LulzSec whom Tarbell turned into an informant on his fellow hackers.

PHNOM PENH, Nov 13 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden told Asian leaders on Sunday that U.S. communication lines with China would stay open to prevent conflict, as the first of three summits of world leaders this week ended, with tense talks almost certain in the days ahead.

Biden during an address to the East Asia Summit in Cambodia, said the United States would “compete vigorously” with Beijing while “ensuring competition does not veer into conflict”, stressing the importance of peace in the Taiwan Strait.

Biden also called on Myanmar’s military rulers to follow a peace plan they agreed to with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), while condemning North Korea’s missile launches and Russia’s “brutal and unjust” invasion of Ukraine.

The Southeast Asia region is also hosting the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Indonesia’s Bali this week, ahead of which Biden will meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for the first time since taking office, with relations between the two superpowers at their worst in decades.

The war in Ukraine and its economic fallout is expected to dominate discussions in Bali and at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Bangkok at the end of the week, as alongside climate commitments, food insecurity and tensions over the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea and North Korea.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the summit in Cambodia on Sunday accused the West of militarising Southeast Asia to contain Chinese and Russian interest in a key geostrategic battleground.

“The United States and its NATO allies are trying to master this space,” Lavrov told reporters.

He said Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy, which the U.S. president was promoting heavily at the meeting, was an attempt to bypass “inclusive structures” for regional cooperation.

ABSENT PUTIN

Lavrov is representing President Vladimir Putin at the summits and is expected to hear stinging rebukes from within the G20 over the invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a special military operation.

Though Ukraine is not a G20 member, its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will address the meeting virtually.

Russia’s foreign ministry on Sunday said the G20 was not the forum to handle security issues and should instead focus on pressing global economic challenges. Lavrov arrived in Bali from Cambodia on Sunday evening.

“Expanding its agenda into areas of peace and security, which many countries are talking about, is not viable,” it said of the G20 forum.

Eighteen countries accounting for half the global economy attended Sunday’s East Asia Summit, which was held behind closed doors, attended by the ASEAN nations, Japan, South Korea, China, India, the United States, Russia, Australia and New Zealand.

The summit’s chair, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, said the plenary meeting handled some heated discussion, but the atmosphere was not tense.

“Leaders talked in mature way, no one left,” he told a news conference.

‘AGGRESSIVE’ PROVOCATIONS

Biden held a trilateral meeting with leaders of allies Japan and South Korea and said the three countries were “more aligned than ever” on North Korea.

South Korea President Yoon Suk-yeol said the North’s recent provocations showed its regime’s “nature against humanitarianism”, adding it had become more hostile and aggressive based on confidence in its nuclear and missile capabilities.

Japan counterpart Fumio Kishida said Pyongyang’s actions, which included a recent firing of a ballistic missile over Japan, were unprecedented.

“This trilateral summit is timely given we are expecting further provocation,” Kishida said.

Kishida also took a swipe at China for what he called violations of Japan’s sovereignty in the East China Sea and said Beijing was responsible also for heightening regional tension in the South China Sea, a conduit for at least $3 trillion in annual trade.

At a separate news conference, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his brief discussions the previous day with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang were constructive and positive, amid anticipation of a formal summit with Xi.

Like ally the United States, Australia’s ties with China have also deteriorated in recent years.

“I have said repeatedly about the relationship with China that we should cooperate where we can,” Albanese said. “And that dialogue is always a good thing.”

Reporting by Prak Chan Thul, Jiraporn Kuhakan and Nandita Bose in Phnom Penh; Additional reporting by Ju-min Park, Sakura Murakami, Leika Kihara and Jake Cordell; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Raissa Kasolowsky

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

MEMBERS of Putin’s brutal private army are believed to have beaten a Russian conscript to death using a sledgehammer after he joined the Ukraine army.

Convicted murderer Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, is seen being smashed in the face with a sledgehammer in a barbaric uncensored video in what is deemed an extrajudicial killing by the notorious Wagner group.

Russian conscript Yevgeny Nuzhin is thought to have been killed ‘for treachery’ having gone to fight for UkraineCredit: Twitter/@nexta_tv/

Yevgeny Prigozhin, right, is a close ally of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and thought to head up the Wagner groupCredit: East2West

He is thought to have been killed “for treachery”.

In September there had been reports that the convicted killer had defected to Ukraine soon after arriving to fight for Vladimir Putin at the front.

He spoke on video at the time saying he had felt like “cannon fodder” in the Russian forces.

He told a Ukrainian journalist Yury Butusov that he had decided in advance to surrender to Ukraine, where some of his family live.

According to pro-Russia source Grey Zone, he was later kidnapped by pro-Moscow forces and made to answer by Wagner – which is headed by close Putin crony Yevgeny Prizohin – for his treachery.

The media outlet posted the graphic and grotesque video, calling it: “Hammer of Vengeance.”

Seconds before the evident fatal blow to his head, Nuzhin said: “I am Yevgeny Anatolievich Nuzhin, born in 1967, who went to the front to go to the side of Ukraine to fight against the Russians.

“On 4 September, I carried out my plan to go over to the side of Ukraine.

“On 11 November 2022, I was on the streets of Kyiv, where received a blow to the head, as a result of which I lost consciousness.

“I woke up in this basement, where I was told that I was going to be tried.”

He is then hit evidently by a long-handled mallet, and after falling backwards is struck again.

“Those who understand know that a sledgehammer and traitors have a close relationship,” said the pro-Wagner Grey Zone Telegram channel.

Founder of the military charity Dzyga’s Paw Dimko Zhluktenko, who claims to have known Nuzhin, wrote on Twitter: “That is why this morning is very tough for me mentally.

“Because of indefinite cruelty and violence is what Russia is all about.

“This man, Evgeny, was a Russian prisoner of war in Ukraine.

“These are last seconds of his life. I know him and talked to him.”

‘BEYOND VIOLENT’

In a later post he added: “PMC Wagner murdered him with gigantic sledgehammer hitting his head – because he became POW. That’s beyond violent.”

He continued: “PMC Wagner claimed full responsibility for this footage – it’s what they do to the exchanged prisoners.

“Pure, pure evil – is what Russia is, even for Russians.”

Wagner – and Progozhin – have threatened deserters and traitors with such summary executions, regardless that they are illegal under Russian law.

The group has recruited tens of thousands of jail inmates to fight for Russia in its illegal war with Ukraine, but those who refuse to fight have been warned of swift vengeance.

Some aspects of the story remain unclear, for example how Nuzhin supposedly returned to Russia.

The claim that he was kidnapped by Wagner agents in Ukrainian capital Kyiv appears implausible, but may have been scripted by Wagner to warn other fighters.

‘PRIMORDIAL WAGNERIAN PUNISHMENT’

“Suddenly disappearing from the investigation in Kyiv, the traitor received traditional primordial Wagnerian punishment,” stated Grey Zone.

Russian prisoner human rights group Gulagu.net – strongly anti-Putin – believes the shocking footage is genuine.

“Nuzhin was in a strict regime colony [in Russia and…] he was recruited by [Putin fixer and Wagner-founder] Yevgeny Prigozhin, and almost immediately was taken captive [by Ukraine],” said a post by the group.

“Some time later he did an interview – watched more than eight million times, and said he decided to fight for Ukraine.

“According to our sources, Nuzhin was either re-captured, or passed back to the Russian army, who passed him on to the so-called Wagner Security Service.”

The officers of this sinister private army security service “killed this man with a sledgehammer as a way of revenge for his critics of Putin, and for switching to the side of Ukraine.”

The footage “proves” that Russian special services and Wagner’s ‘security service’ carry extrajudicial executions, and kill prisoners who refuse to fight for Russia, but want to switch to Ukraine”.

It concluded: “Putin and Prigozhin are murderers. They must face justice.”

Former Putin speechwriter Abbas Galyamov said the footage would damage Prigozhin who is said to want to become Russia’s defence minister.

“People would not want to see a person, organising public medieval executions, in power,” he said..

“He also did a very bad service to the regime with that.”

Nuzhin was jailed for 24 years for a 1999 killing, and wounding a second victim.

He had been released after a visit by Putin’s henchman Prigozhin to his prison in Ryazan region.

He told the Ukrainian journalist: “We were in training for seven days, the 7th squad was an assault unit…

“I don’t even know how to explain the task of assault squads, I realised for myself – cannon fodder.

“You do something wrong – they zero out, it’s called a firing squad.”

He said he defected because he could not go to war against his relatives who live in Ukraine.

Nuzhin had married in jail to a woman named Olga, and they have two sons who have served in the Russian army.

The murderer had also served in the army as a young man.

Last month, a notorious Russian mobster who was freed from prison to fight in the Ukraine war was reportedly executed after trying to flee the frontline.

Zaur Aliyev, 47, released under a controversial scheme which saw him sign up for mad Vlad’s private army the Wagner Group, was executed after trying to desert in Ukraine.

The crime boss was serving an 18-year sentence at one of Russia’s infamous penal colonies when he was freed in September under the scheme.

Prigozhin, a close ally of the Russian president, announced the scheme in September, which offers murderers and other hardened criminals their freedom in return for six months of fighting on the frontline.

Before his savage death, Nuzhin is seen speaking to the cameraCredit: Twitter/@igorsushko

Prigozhin’s scheme offers Russia’s hardened criminals to fight on the frontline in exchange for having their criminal record wiped cleanCredit: AP

Chris Magnus appears before a Senate Finance Committee hearing on his nomination to be the next U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, U.S., October 19, 2021. Rod Lamkey/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

По его словам, проблемы российской армии настолько глубокие и системные, что их невозможно исправить даже за месяцы работы.

Путин потерял доверие своих генералов / скриншот

Утрата доверия между Генштабом РФ и президентом России Владимиром Путиным может вызвать взрыв.

Об этом в эфире телеканала “Эспрессо” сказал экс-командующий Сухопутных войск США на европейском континенте генерал-лейтенант Бен Ходжес.

По его словам, Путин назначил нового командующего, поскольку тот очень к нему лоялен.

“Суровикин – это новый командующий российских оккупационных войск и имеет репутацию брутального и коррумпированного. Или кто-то будет удивлен, что Кремль выберет коррумпированного преступника и убийцу на должность нового командующего? Это же было прогнозируемо. Тем более, что он еще и очень лоялен, а это сейчас является важнейшим качеством для назначения на должность, потому что Путин обеспокоен тем, что его генералы не поддерживают его так, как поддерживали раньше”, – пояснил Ходжес.

По словам эксперта, пока неважно кто станет в РФ новым командующим. Проблемы российской армии настолько глубокие и системные, что новый руководитель не сможет исправить это за несколько недель или месяцев.

“Коррупция, отсутствие координации между воздушными силами, сухопутными войсками и флотом, провалена логистическая система. Все это такой ужас, что неважно, кто бы ни стал командующим, он не сможет этого преодолеть. Какое отличие нового командующего? Думаю он продолжит тот или иной тип брутальной тактики и чем скорее они терпят поражение, тем лучше”, – подытожил Ходжес.

Война в Украине

Войска РФ рано утром 24 февраля вторглись в Украину без объявления войны. Там назвали полномасштабную агрессию “спецоперацией”, направленной, в частности, на “денацификацию”и “демилитаризацию” Украины.

21 сентября президент РФ Владимир Путин объявил о начале частичной мобилизации в стране. По словам российского руководства, привлекать к войне против Украины будут до 300 тысяч человек.

23-27 сентября российские оккупанты провели на захваченных частях четырех областей Украины псевдореферендумы. В Херсонской и Запорожской – о выходе из состава Украины и присоединение к России в Донецкой и Луганской – о присоединении к России. 30 сентября президент России Владимир Путин объявил об аннексии частей четырех областей Украины.

По состоянию на 16 октября общие потери живой силы России в Украине с начала полномасштабного вторжения достигли отметки в 65 тысяч человек.

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Оппозиционер отметил, Путин заставил воевать Генштаб РФ и армию, а теперь пытается их сделать ответственными за поражения на фронте.

Генералы с самого начала были против войны Путина / скриншот видео

В войне России против Украины произошел слом, однако на падение фашистского режима в РФ освобождение Херсона не повлияет.

Российский оппозиционер и журналист Игорь Яковенко считает, что между путинским режимом и генералами углубляется трещина. В эфире “Эспрессо” он подчеркнул, что консолидация между ними временная.

“Достаточно большие ресурсы есть для выживания РФ. Мы не знаем, после какой очередной победы украинской армии российский режим начнет рушиться. Но трещины уже пошли, и это очевидно. Трещина между Путиным и российской армией углубляется. Это заметно, потому что генералы с самого начала были против этой войны”, – пояснил Яковенко.

Оппозиционер отметил, Путин заставил воевать Генштаб РФ и армию, а теперь пытается их сделать ответственными за поражения на фронте.

“Удар, который нанесли Пригожин и Кадыров, принеся голову генерала Лапина Путину на блюде, был направлен против начальника Генштаба Герасимова, который уже явно в немилости и станет, возможно, следующей жертвой. Генералы не имеют желания быть овцами на заклании. Они в определенный момент, когда уже наступит полное недовольство Путиным, скажут свое слово”, – подытожил Яковенко.

Российские генералы и война в Украине

Ранее разведка Британии сообщила о потерях среди российских генералов в Украине. Как минимум 10 генералов ликвидированы на войне и уже никогда не вернутся в строй. А шесть были отстранены от исполнения своих должностных обязанностей.

Экс-командующий Сухопутных войск США на Европейском континенте генерал-лейтенант Бен Ходжес считает, что генералы Путина больше ему не доверяют.

По мнению экспертов, Путин развернул кампанию, очерняющую генералов, поскольку именно их хочет сделать виновными в проигрыше в войне.

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