And this might be one reason why the US went after this guy - the BTC-e exchange was extremely popular for laundering criminal money. A google research talk sho

And this might be one reason why the US went after this guy - the BTC-e exchange was extremely popular for laundering criminal money. A google research talk showed over 95% of bitcoin ransoms were cashed out via BTC-e. Once the US have this guy in custody, they can then get their hands on the server transaction records, and chase down the criminals who extorted money from people and companies in the US.