$33M Seized From Crypto Money Laundering Case in Brazil

On Thursday, Brazil’s police seized worth 33 million USD (R$172M) acquired through crypto exchanges in a money-laundering investigation.  The Brazilian judiciary authorized freezing the accounts of two individuals and 17 companies.

During the ‘Exchange Transaction’ operation in Sao Paulo and Diadema, the Brazilian police carried out six search warrants. With that said, the Brazilian judiciary authorized seizing the assets of two individuals and 17 companies.

According to the official statement, the crypto exchanges acquired and sold Bitcoin to fictitious companies to facilitate their creators’ access to the banking system. More so, the Civil Police of Brazil explained,

Preliminary investigations showed that companies transacted large amounts among themselves and then sent the amounts to brokers, responsible for the acquisition of digital assets, to later deliver to their customers the cryptocurrency validation code (hash), which can be used in anywhere in the world without the possibility of tracing or linking to origin.

Furthermore, one of the exchanges transacted $1.93 million of digital assets in a five-month period. It should be noted that these are all with 6 bogus companies, while 8 other bogus companies acquired worth $2.9 million in the same period.

Upon the investigation, they also figured that the money was sent to several offshore companies and subsequently repatriated by simulating sales or service-provision transactions.

Initial investigations stated that the companies conducted large transactions among themselves and then routed money to intermediaries. Whereas, the intermediaries were responsible for the acquisition of digital assets and the delivery of a hash code to their clients.