Hong Kong authorities arrest suspects laundering Money via Crypto Trading Platform

Last Tuesday, Hong Kong Customs officials arrested two individuals suspected of laundering money via a crypto trading platform. The individuals reportedly laundered over $380 million through their bank accounts and a crypto account.

The suspects are siblings, a 28-year-old woman, and her 21-year-old brother, and were arrested in the residential HK district, Yau Tong. Through their investigations, authorities report that the two opened bank accounts between May and November 2020 at several banks throughout the country. Through these accounts, the suspects would move funds using bank transfers, cash deposits, and crypto transactions.

According to the customs officials, both individuals were arrested for “dealing with property known or reasonably believed to represent the proceeds of an indictable offense.”

With crypto’s rise, several individuals have used the digital asset space as an avenue for illegal activities. Chinese authorities arrested over 1,000 individuals suspected of using crypto assets to launder illicit funds for fraudulent telecommunication activities last June.

In October of 2020, a Rotterdam court sentenced two BTC traders to 2-2.5 years in prison for money laundering operations. The court ended up seizing over 29 million euros worth of BTC following the trader’s conviction.

Governments around the world have worked to regulate the use of crypto in the financial sector to counteract situations such as these. In September, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) revealed plans to impose anti-money laundering rules on crypto providers.

Source: CryptoPotato