Even the BTC-e exchange was going strongly, when the US authorities wanted them to conduct KYC for the American users. The BTC-e guys bragged that they are not going to do any KYC and challenged the American authorities. Their exchange got nuked in a few weeks. Even after that these guys didn't stopped provoking the Americans. They came online with Wex.nz and once again challenged the Americans. And this time the FBI finished them off permanently and put Alexander Vinnik behind bars for the rest of his life.
No one took wex.nz down, the Russians themselves managed to do it after someone ran away with the money.
And Vinnik is still languishing in a Greek jail, 2.5 years after his arrest.