Crypto Trader who laundered $12 million detained by police

Among other countries, Argentina has gained a reputation to be one of the favorite countries for Crypto criminals to carry out their activities. A 37-year-old was recently detained in Argentina who pose as a crypto grader and laundered millions of cryptocurrencies using crypto assets for ar various criminal groups.

Money Laundering Scheme in Argentina

The local press reported that the money came from the scams committed through fake websites although the police didn’t reveal the suspect’s name. The account created by the suspect created a lot of suspicions as the local authorities were tipped that the exchange used to move tokens.

Further investigation by the police revealed that they lured victims of their hard-earned money by creating cloned bank pages and further investigation revealed it to be a high-profile money laundering scheme. The police were successful to find out the entire tea behind the coordinated operation which included suspects who lent their names to open bank accounts, recruiters, and the ones who cloned the bank pages.

The investigation led by the police further revealed that the detainee used a hardware wallet to launder $11.57 million in cryptocurrencies. Due to the portability and accessibility offered by the hardware wallets it has become an ideal way for criminals to launder money. Additionally that these wallets come in a pen drive shape and to get access to the tokens inside the hardware is quite easy. Once the hardware is connected to a computer and a 12-word-password is inputted the hardware wallets can be accessible.

With the arrest of the primary suspect, the police had put an end to the high-profile money laundering scheme. The Argentine cyber authorities and police have been in a row to reduce cybercrime. They have conducted 70 simultaneous raids in different regions. Although this is a big win for the authorities this again puts the digital assets in a negative light. While there are some countries like China and Nigeria that banned crypto completely, countries like the U.S. and the European Union are still taking measures and creating a lot of regulations to use crypto as an alternative means of payment.

Summing up

One of the biggest concerns that still lies with cryptocurrency is that it can be used easily by criminals for purposes such as scams and money laundering since Crypto cannot be traced easily. The rise of cases such as rug-pulls, and smart contract exploits have led to massive financial loss and made the industry vulnerable to money-related scams.

Crypto advocates believe that with the increasing surveillance, exchange platforms conducting KYC, and regulations getting tightened the no of crimes has reduced and the majority of crimes come from the fiat systems which will also decrease in the coming days keeping in mind that a set no of regulations will be deployed.