PANews reported on March 24 that blockchain detective ZachXBT tweeted that after his investigation into Aleks was made public, Aleks immediately set a restriction on Telegram that only paid users could contact him, requiring a payment of 35,000 Stars to get in touch with him.

Earlier today, ZachXBT reported that Russian off-exchange broker Aleks helped an extortion gang launder more than $4.7 million .