WASHINGTON, January 20. /TASS/. US Department of State Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel failed to come up with an explanation of why the US authorities did not notify the Russian Embassy in Washington about the recent detention of Russian citizen Anatoly Legkodymov in Florida.

"I am not aware of that specific case. I would obviously refer you to local authorities in Miami as well on specifics surrounding that," he said when asked by a TASS correspondent about why the US side failed to issue an appropriate consular notification on this case.

Nadezhda Shumova, head of the Russian embassy’s consular department, told reporters on Wednesday answering to a question from TASS, that the US authorities failed to duly notify the Russian diplomatic mission about the arrest of its citizen.

"The embassy is closely following the situation around the Russian citizen’s arrest. We have received no notification about his arrest. We requested information about the Russian citizen’s whereabouts from the US Department of State, so that he could receive the consular and legal assistance he needs," Shumova said.

The US Department of Justice said Legkodymov was detained in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday. The US authorities suspect him of being a co-founder of the Hong Kong-registered Bitzlato cryptocurrency exchange.

According to the Department of Justice, Bitzlato’s largest counterparty in cryptocurrency transactions was Hydra Market, an anonymous online marketplace, offering, among other things, narcotics, stolen financial information and fraudulent identification documents. Hydra Market users exchanged more than $700 million in cryptocurrency with Bitzlato, either directly or through intermediaries, before it was shuttered by US and German law enforcement in April 2022.

As alleged in a US complaint, Legkodymov administered Bitzlato from Miami in 2022 and 2023 and was aware that some of its users obtained their funds by illegal means. Charges filed against him entail the maximum punishment of five years in prison.