United States prosecutors have filed charges against a Nebraska man accused of a cryptojacking scheme that allegedly defrauded two cloud providers – one headquartered in Seattle and the other in Redmond, Washington – of $3.5 million. Prosecutors allege that the cryptojacking scheme yielded cryptocurrency mining valued at almost $1 million. Cryptojacker Charged in $3.5 Million...Read More
Crypto privacy protocol Railgun has denied accusations that it is being used by North Korea and other United States-sanctioned entities to launder digital assets. This development comes as the crypto privacy protocol nears $1B total volume. Railgun Denies Lazarus Group Association Responding to claims made by crypto reporter Colin Wu through an X post, Railgun...Read More
Jian Wen, a former takeaway worker residing in north London, was found guilty of one count of money laundering after she was found with Bitcoin worth over $2.5 billion (£2 billion) in 2018. Jian Wen assisted a Chinese fugitive known to Wen as Zhang Yadi, whose real name is Qian Zhimin, in laundering the BTC...Read More
Following his arrest nearly three years ago, a Jury in a US federal district court found Roman Sterlingov, operator of the crypto mixer Bitcoin Fog, guilty of a four-count charge regarding money laundering. The founder of Bitcoin Fog faces up to a maximum of 50 years in prison for all his charges. Sterlingov Convicted According...Read More
The U.S. Treasury Department has reported that despite the growing trend of illicit actors turning to cryptocurrencies for money laundering and financing, cold hard cash remains their preferred tool. In its 2024 National Risk Assessments on Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Proliferation Financing, the Treasury shed light on the various threats, vulnerabilities, and risks associated...Read More
According to Manhattan federal prosecutors, Mark Scott, a former partner at the U.S. law firm Locke Lord, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his involvement in a $400 million fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme. The sentencing took place on Thursday, and Scott was found guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to...Read More
A father-son duo, residents of Maryland, have been sentenced for their involvement in a dark web drug trafficking and Bitcoin money laundering scheme. Joseph Farace, aged 72, was sentenced to 19 months in federal prison on January 8 for aiding his son, Ryan Farace, aged 38, in the laundering of Bitcoin proceeds from illicit drug...Read More
Crypto firms faced substantial regulatory action, collectively paying nearly $6 billion in fines primarily due to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) violations and deficiencies in customer checks last year. This marks a significant development, as crypto and fintech groups experienced higher fines for inadequate controls than the entire traditional financial system for the first time. Crypto-Related Fines...Read More
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon attacked Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on Wednesday, suggesting that they’re only useful for criminals and may as well be banned. “If I were the government, I’d close it down,” Dimon said of the crypto industry during remarks on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Bitcoin, Banks, and Crime Dimon was one among...Read More
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has uncovered a money laundering syndicate, named the Long River syndicate, which is alleged to have utilized the Changjiang Currency Exchange as a front for laundering around $229 million in illicit funds over the past three years. As part of Operation Avarus-Nightwolf, a series of targeted raids were executed, confiscating...Read More
U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo confirmed in a speech on Friday that crypto plays a relevant, but still relatively minor role in global terrorist financing operations. His comments bear a stark contrast to claims from a massive lineup of congresspeople earlier this month, asserting that crypto is responsible for over $130 million in Hamas...Read More
Lesser-known crypto exchange, BKEX, claimed that some user funds on the platform are involved in money laundering. As a result, the platform is currently cooperating with the police to gather evidence and will suspend withdrawals for the regulatory investigation. In an announcement on May 29th, BKEX said it will continue to focus on restoring the...Read More
The authorities of Israel have reportedly seized around 190 cryptocurrency accounts at Binance since 2021, saying some of those were tied to the terrorist groups – Hamas and Islamic State. The exchange claimed that Reuters (the media outlet that informed about the confiscation) is “deliberately leaving out critical facts to fit their narrative.” It asserted...Read More
Two weeks ago, a little-known crypto exchange called Bitzlato was shut down in a raid coordinated by Europol and spearheaded by French and American authorities. Now, the company’s founder believes it will soon resume operations. A Coordinated Effort The sting operation was carried out in the two aforementioned countries, as well as Portugal, Spain, and...Read More
On Wednesday, the United States Department of Justice announced an international cryptocurrency enforcement action. The Department arrested the founder of BitZlato – a Chinese crypto exchange involved in servicing financial criminals The DOJ broke the news on Wednesday, alongside representatives from the FBI, OFAC, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). OFAC administers the US...Read More
Hundreds of crypto-related cases are piling up at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)’s Criminal Investigation division. According to division chief Jim Lee, many of these cases will be made public soon, of which are largely related to tax. Evading Taxes With Crypto As reported by Bloomberg Tax, some of his division’s most common cases are...Read More
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange – Binance – signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Financial Monitoring Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Over the course of the agreement, both parties expressed a mutual interest in creating a safe crypto environment in the Asian country and bringing down financial crime in the area. Binance’s...Read More
Law enforcement agents from Hengyang (a city in the southern Chinese province Hunan) have reportedly busted a criminal group that employed cryptocurrencies to launder 40 billion yuan (approximately $5.6 billion). Over the past several months, China’s authorities halted numerous similar schemes, arresting thousands of people. The ‘Hundred-day Action’ According to a local coverage, the Chinese...Read More
The blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis announced on Thursday that it has successfully assisted law enforcement in seizing $30 million in crypto stolen by North Korean hackers of the Lazarus group. The ill-gotten proceeds were connected to the infamous Axie Infinity hack in March – the largest hack in decentralized finance (DeFi) to date. How the...Read More
Israeli authorities have arrested three individuals suspected of defrauding the French state treasury. The undercover investigation was carried out jointly by the Israel police and the Israel Tax Authority over the last few months. Foreign investigative agencies – Europol and the French Police – also cooperated. As per Reuters, the investigators are looking into a...Read More
India’s Enforcement Directorate is conducting an investigation against ten cryptocurrency exchanges allegedly involved in laundering more than 1 billion rupees, equivalent to more than $125 million in digital currency. According to The Economics Times, the exchanges (which have not yet been identified) were used by several companies accused of money laundering to make cryptocurrency purchases...Read More
Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31, the self-claimed infamous “Crocodile of Wall Street” couple, were charged with trying to launder funds taken in a massive hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016. According to the latest development, though, the two are still negotiating a possible plea deal. Lichtenstein and Morgan were due...Read More
The government of Kazakhstan reportedly plans to put local companies working with digital assets under its regulatory scope. According to a proposed bill, those entities will have to give detailed information about their crypto operations to the country’s financial watchdogs to prove they have no connections to money-laundering schemes. Kazakhstan May Tighten Its Crypto Rules...Read More
The American authorities have accused the Baltimore resident – Ryan Farace – of laundering2,933 BTC between October 2019 and April 2021. Interestingly, the man was sent to jail in 2018 and has presumably executed the criminal activities from behind bars. ‘Xanaxman’ Dealing with Bitcoin Even from Prison According to The Baltimore Sun, officials of the...Read More
Less than a year after Chainalysis placed BitMEX into its “high risk” cryptocurrency exchanges zone, the company has reversed its decision. The analytics company has conducted an internal review of the derivatives exchanges, which has strived to improve its AML compliance lately. BitMEX faced extreme scrutiny last year when most of its executives at the...Read More
The British police confiscated £180 million or about $250 million worth of digital assets as part of a thorough investigation for money laundering. The operation was marked as the largest seizure ever executed in the United Kingdom. Breaking The Record According to a recent Reuters report, the Met’s Economic Crime Command made one of the...Read More
Chinese authorities have arrested 1,100 suspects who allegedly used cryptocurrency to launder funds for telecommunications network fraud activities. China Continues Crackdown on Crypto The Ministry of Public Security on Wednesday (June 9, 2021) announced that authorities cracked down on a group of people believed to be running an illegal criminal gang. According to the announcement,...Read More
This allows users to create trustless atomic swaps between the two cryptocurrencies without having to route through a centralized exchange service. Monero’s Privacy Mechanisms Monero’s ring signature system draws anonymity from a minimum ring size. Receivers are protected via stealth addresses, and funds within the ring are indistinguishable from each other. The minimum ring size...Read More
Amid the renewed anti-Bitcoin remarks ascribed to mainstream finance stakeholders, reports have emerged showing banks in Australia working in cahoots with violent South American cocaine cartels. Despite aspersions to the contrary, the crypto market continues to account for an insignificant proportion of global financial crimes. Australian Banks Funelling Dirty Money for Drug Cartels According to...Read More
Janet Yellen is keeping true to form as a crypto critic and has linked cryptocurrencies to terrorist financing and money laundering. Meanwhile, another report has emerged showing that virtual currencies only account for an insignificant proportion of global financial crimes. Yellen Espouses Well-Worn Crypto FUD Speaking during her virtual confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate,...Read More
