Australian authorities have charged four individuals following an 18-month investigation into a $190 million Australian dollar ($123 million) crypto laundering operation allegedly run through a cash-in-transit security company.
The Australian Federal Police said it froze about 21 million AU$ ($13.6 million) worth of suspected criminal assets across the states of Queensland and New South Wales.
The Queensland Joint Organized Crime Taskforce (QJOCT), comprising 70 officers from federal and state agencies, began the investigation in December 2023. It reportedly uncovered an operation that used an armored vehicle unit of a security business as a front to launder criminal proceeds into cryptocurrency.
Transaction trails from one suspect, who allegedly laundered $9.5 million AU$ ($6.2 million) over 15 months, led investigators to uncover a complex laundering scheme masked as legitimate business activity.
The security company is accused of blending clean business earnings with illicit cash deposited by suspected criminals, then funneling the funds through a sales promotion company, a classic car dealership and cryptocurrency exchanges.
The laundered funds were then allegedly distributed to beneficiaries either in cryptocurrency or via those front businesses.
Crypto enables and battles money laundering
While blockchain technology offers the potential to modernize financial systems, its open and decentralized nature also makes it attractive to criminals. It can act as a double-edged sword in the fight against financial crime.
According to blockchain forensics specialist Chainalysis, more than $100 billion worth of crypto flowed from illicit wallets to conversion services between 2019 and mid-2024.
Cybercriminals have become increasingly adept at using mixers, DeFi protocols and crosschain bridges to obscure their transactions and evade detection. Despite these efforts, blockchain’s transparency remains a powerful tool for law enforcement to trace illicit flows.
Crypto is digital money but has real-world implications
In recent months, rising instances of crypto-related crime have occurred in the physical world. Criminals are increasingly turning to physical violence and intimidation to obtain or protect digital assets.
In France, Moroccan police recently arrested 24-year-old Badiss Mohamed Amide Bajjou, suspected of orchestrating a string of crypto-related kidnappings, including a failed attempt to abduct the daughter and grandson of Paymium CEO Pierre Noizat.
In another high-profile case, Ledger co-founder David Balland was kidnapped from his home in central France in January and held hostage for over a day before police rescued him on Jan. 22.
Following a surge in physical threats, the so-called “Bitcoin Family” — a Dutch nomadic family that liquidated all assets in 2017 to live entirely on Bitcoin — revamped their personal security by splitting their seed phrase across four continents and encrypting it with custom protections.
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