Arthur Budovsky, the founder of virtual currency firm Liberty Reserve, was extradited Friday from  Spain to face criminal charges in the United States for operating what the authorities called. a massive money-laundering scheme.

Federal prosecutors said that Budovsky, a 40-year-old Costa Rican national and former citizen of the U.S., will be tried on accusations about creating an alternative digital currency utilized by criminals around the globe to launder illegal profits.

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Budovsky is charged of being the "principal founder" of the scheme based in Costa Rica, which allegedly laundered more than $6 billion criminals in a seven-year period from 2006 to 2013.

He arrived in New York on Friday afternoon and will be taken to court before U.S. district Judge Denise Cote on Tuesday.

The news comes two weeks after Liberty's head of technology, Maxim Chukharev, pleaded guilty in a New York federal court to scheming, to running an unlicensed illegal money transmitting business.

In May 2013, Chukharev and Budovsky were among the seven people charged when federal officials said they had stopped what was described as one of history's largest money laundering programs.

Three others pleaded guilty over the course of the investigation.

The virtual exchange mechanism, which let its users to cover their tracks, was similar to bitcoin, dogecoin, litecoin and other cryptocurrencies.

The principal officers of Liberty Reserve were taken into custody in a raid in New York, Spain and Costa Rica in the previous year, putting the last nail in the coffin of the firm. The company had been one of the most successful in the increasingly scrutinized but popular industry of virtual currencies and unnofficial banking.

The indictment charged the founder and his collaborators of building a company that impersonated as a legitimate and convenient funds transferring system.

Prior to being shut down, Budovsky's  company had over a million users worldwide, including more than 200,000 in the U.S.

TagsVirtual Currency, Arthur Budovsky, Liberty Reserve, Money-Laundering, costa rica, Spain, bitcoin, litecoin, dogecoin