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MARYSVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) -- The clock is ticking for central Ohio residents to have a voice in a major future power transmission line project. Grid Growth would add 220 miles of new high-voltage transmission infrastructure, as electricity demand continues to grow across the state. Grid Growth said the region is growing, and with it, new [...]

joel and getartcraft.org.

POWELL, Ohio (WCMH) — When No. 4 Ohio State takes on No. 5 Indiana in Saturday's much anticipated matchup, the Buckeyes won't be the only ones on the field with strong connections to central Ohio. At least four players on the Indiana Hoosiers played their high school football in central Ohio. Isaiah Jones, a linebacker [...]

Three teenage boys -- two 14 years old and the third 15 years old -- have been charged in a fatal shooting earlier this month in the Hilltop section of Columbus.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A report from Columbus relators shows that buying a Columbus home keeps getting more expensive, even though the national median home price is higher than here.  Carlie Boos, executive director of the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio, noted that there are currently more homes on the market in Columbus than last [...]

The 21st annual ARRL Online Auction is open now through October 22. Browse more than 200 items and place your bids!

This year’s selection includes gear from QST “Product Review” articles, vintage books, pre-owned equipment, signed original sketches by Salty Walt Hudson, K4OGO, from Salty Walt’s Portable Antenna Sketchbook, and four popular mystery boxes contributed by the ARRL Lab team. Featured...

The 21st annual ARRL Online Auction opens October 16, and you can preview more than 200 items now.

This year’s selection includes gear from QST “Product Review” articles, vintage books, pre-owned equipment, signed original sketches by Salty Walt Hudson, K4OGO, from Salty Walt’s Portable Antenna Sketchbook, and four popular mystery boxes contributed by the ARRL Lab team. Featured equipment includ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- An executive of the Catholic Foundation of Ohio was arrested on October 1, for child sex crimes and now charged with multiple felonies. Scott Hartman, 49, was indicted Tuesday on of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor, pandering obscenity involving a minor, harmful to juvenile, tampering with evidence, and misdemeanor of [...]

A plane ran off the runway Wednesday morning at the Union County Airport, according to authorities.

NEWARK, Ohio (WCMH) — Licking County authorities rescued nine children from what arresting deputies described as “deplorable living conditions” and alleged abuse over the past three years. According to court documents, two adults have been arrested and charged with endangering children in which the defendants reportedly administered corporal punishment, restraint for prolonged periods and other [...]

Ohio remains competitive as new poll finds Republicans slightly ahead in the governor and Senate races, but within the margin of error.

A Halloween festival featuring trick-or-treating, hayrides and live entertainment is set to return to Gahanna later this month.

The United Kingdom has issued economic sanctions against Cryptomus, a chameleonic cryptocurrency platform that experts say serves as a major conduit for payments related to ransomware, narcotics, darknet markets, fraud and cybercrime services that are helping Russia circumvent existing financial restrictions.

Heleket’s support agent on Telegram claims, despite all evidence to the contrary, that it is not affiliated with Cryptomus. Image: Richard Sanders.

On October 8, the U.K. issued sanctions (PDF) against Cryptomus — previously known as Certa Payments and Xeltox Enterprises — for processing payments that benefit the Russian government and its financial institutions. The sanctions freeze any Cryptomus assets at U.K. banks, and bar British companies from offering it any business, virtual or otherwise. Also targeted in these sanctions were the virtual payment platforms VexPay, TokenSpot, and the Tsunami Payments service.

As explained in our December 2024 investigation, “How Cryptocurrency Turns to Cash in Russian Banks,” Cryptomus has been a key payment processor for dozens of Russian cryptocurrency exchanges and websites hawking cybercrime services. The company has changed its name several times since emerging in 2022, most recently to “Heleket” last year after Canada levied a record CAD $176 million fine against the platform for anti-money laundering violations.

The blockchain data-crunching firm Chainalysis said the U.K. sanctions target the broader infrastructure supporting Russia’s wartime economy.

“Cryptomus and Heleket have emerged as major payment hubs for illicit activity,” Chainalysis wrote in an October 8 blog post. “Together, these services received more illicit funds across tracked categories than the mixers in our dataset and the number of illicit counterparties surged to more than 900 in a single month in late 2025.”

The Cryptomus support bot on Telegram, responding on Oct. 8 to an inquiry by saying the platform was suddenly unable to process transactions.

In April 2026, the blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs found Cryptomus had processed more than $7 billion in transactions since its inception in 2022, including transactions associated with child sexual abuse material vendors, terrorist financing networks, and human trafficking operations.

TRM noted that Cryptomus’s transaction volume cratered after the platform instituted new “know your customer” or KYC rules, and that the cryptocurrency platform responded to the Canadian fines by launching Heleket as a parallel service that continued to offer no-KYC payment processing.

Richard Sanders is a blockchain analyst and investigator who spent months mapping out Cryptomus’s payment infrastructure and transacting with its customers. Sanders said the U.K. sanctions on Cryptomus are important because Canada’s sanctions against the platform were ultimately unenforceable and uncollectible.

“A fine doesn’t stop a cryptocurrency payment processor from processing payments,” Sanders wrote on LinkedIn. “Sanctions kill the operation. The distinction matters.”

As our 2024 investigation noted, Cryptomus shared a Vancouver address with dozens of other foreign currency dealers and money transfer businesses — none of which appeared to be physically located there. Following the CAD $176 million fine for alleged money laundering violations, Cryptomus appealed the penalty, launched Heleket as a parallel service, and kept on processing large volumes of sketchy transactions, Sanders said.

Sanders said the sanctions also are notable because they are the first known instance of a “Five Eyes” country (referring to the Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S.) sanctioning a cryptocurrency operation incorporated in another Five Eyes jurisdiction.

Where do entities like Cryptomus and Heleket derive their authority to offer international financial services? The answer appears to involve fake financial institutions overseen by a phony regulatory body positioned in a country that is not widely recognized as a sovereign nation.

Our 2024 investigation found the sole shareholder of Cryptomus’s parent company Certa Payments was a 25-year-old Ukrainian woman who also headed several other firms, including the WS Management and Advisory Corporation, which bills itself as the regulatory body that exclusively oversees licenses for cryptocurrency, foreign exchange and online gaming businesses incorporated in the disputed region in northwest Africa known as the Western Sahara.

That entity’s website — crasadr.com — says it assists applicants with bank setup and formation, online gaming licenses, and the creation and licensing of foreign exchange brokers. One of Certa Payments’ former sites — certa[.]website — also shared a server with 12 other domains, including rasd-state[.]ws, a website for the Central Reserve Authority of the Western Sahara.

The website crasadr dot com, the official website of the Central Reserve Authority of Western Sahara, which lists the entities awarded licenses for cryptocurrencies, gaming and foreign exchange services.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The first time Indiana played Ohio State, in 1901, the Hoosiers won. And the last time the teams met, the Hoosiers also won. No matter how much in between that Ohio State has dominated the series, leading it 81-13-5, those bookend Hoosiers wins are truly something rare. Before the 2025 Big [...]

A home for sale in Bath, Ohio, featuring an unconventional floor plan and a unique pet-washing station in the kitchen, has gone viral on social media via the Zillow Gone Wild account.

Mount Vernon City School District voters will decide Nov. 3 whether to approve a 1% earned income tax that would pay for new and renovated schools while supporting daily district operations.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Reports of street racing and related activity in the Polaris area have increased sharply, according to Columbus police dispatch records, while residents say the noise and reckless driving have become a regular part of their lives. Ashley Migitz and Kelli King both live in the area. They each described witnessing street [...]