US indicts two Chinese foreign nationals for operating criminal enterprise, international money laundering and selling fentanyl

Tweet The US Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, announced the unsealing of a 43-count indictment against two foreign nationals from China for allegedly manufacturing, advertising, selling and shipping fentanyl, carfentanil and other deadly drugs to several countries including the US and Canada, which resulted in the deaths of American citizens. They are also charged with operating […]

Canadian who was the 3rd largest fentanyl dealer, indicted in the US

Tweet Operation Darkness Falls nets Canadian fentanyl dealer The US DoJ, Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the US Postal Service and DEA announced several arrests in Operation Darkness Falls, an international operation that sought to ferret out the identities of people selling illegal drugs, especially fentanyl, on the darknet that accepted Bitcoin and other digital […]

Bitcoin programmer and seller indicted in US for money laundering

Tweet A Bitcoin seller was arrested in the US on Friday and charged with 31 offences including international money laundering, operating an illegal digital currency exchange, failing to have an anti-money laundering program in place and structuring transactions. 21-year-old Jacob Campos was a developer at Edge Wallet and a Bitcoin trader who sold Bitcoin in […]

International money laundering case allegedly involving the ICO Dragon Coin

Tweet According to the federal Thai police, as reported here in the Bangkok Post, the Dragon Coin (which is an ICO), was used for or was involved in it seems unwittingly, an international fraud and money laundering scheme. The Dragon Coin is an ICO allegedly launched with the involvement of a former Triad boss and […]

China seizes $1.5 million in Bitcoin from wallets used for illegal online gambling

Tweet The police from Guangdong province in China arrested more than 540 people in mid-July and seized more than $1.5 million in Bitcoin associated with illegal online gambling. Police also took offline more than 70 gambling apps and websites and shut down 250 chats for online gambling. In addition, $39 million in assets have been […]

Do foreign digital currency exchanges taking US customers online have to be AML registered in the US?

Tweet Do foreign digital currency exchanges that take US customers online have to be AML registered in the US? Not unsurprisingly, the answer is yes. Under US law, digital currency ​exchangers​ qualify as money transmitters and are subject to the obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act. Key concepts to know are that: An exchanger is a person […]

23 members of transnational criminal organization arrested for money laundering

Tweet Europol announced today that the Spain and Columbia collectively arrested 23 members of an unidentified transnational criminal organization (the “Group”) involved in laundering the proceeds of crime on behalf of other unidentified transitional criminal organizations. The Group didn’t launder a lot of money – only €2 million.  The Group allegedly used Bitcoin to launder […]

Woman who bought Bitcoin with $300,000 in cash in grocery bags, going to jail for one year

Tweet A woman in California, who admitted operating an unlicensed in-person digital currency exchange where she traded cash for Bitcoin,  was sentenced today to 12 months in federal prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of US$20,000. Theresa Tetley pled guilty to conducting an illegal business and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions involving Bitcoin, and […]

Operation Dark Gold – arrest of 35 darknet vendors using digital currencies for illegal drug trafficking and commerce

Tweet The US Department of Justice, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Secret Service, and the DEA announced the arrest and pending prosecution of more than 35 darknet vendors across the country after a year-long investigation dubbed Operation Dark Gold. US federal law enforcement seized more than $20 million in Bitcoin and other digital currencies, 100 illegal […]

Court in China approves Blockchain as a source of evidence

Tweet A Court in China has ruled that Blockchain technology can be used to provide evidence in litigation in a first-of-its-kind decision. The litigation involved the ownership of intellectual property, where a claim of IP was recorded on the Blockchain. The Hangzhou Court of the Internet in China’s Zhejiang Province ruled that information stored on […]