The Brazilian government has successfully confiscated $33 million from a suspected money-laundering operation.
The authorities have sent six search warrants and conducted probes in the Diadema and Sāo Paulo areas. After gathering enough evidence, the Brazilian court allowed the police to seize all the assets found in the area.
The accounts of two individuals who were involved in the money laundering operation were also blocked by the authority.
More revelations
Upon their investigation, the authorities also found that the individuals have created fake companies to gain access to the banking system. The investigation also revealed that crypto exchanges have channeled large amounts of bitcoin on these fake companies.
In only a span of five months, one crypto exchange platform traded $1.92 million worth of bitcoin on the dummy entities. In the same period, eight more fake companies were also found to have gained an additional $2.88 million.
As the authorities dug deeper, they also discovered that the suspects had sent their “earnings” to overseas companies. These companies then sent back the funds as “sales” and “service,” completing the money-laundering process.
Loose security measures
One of the main reasons why the dummy companies have easily transacted on cryptocurrency exchange platforms is because these exchanges don’t have any strict precautionary measures.
According to the authorities, these crypto exchanges didn’t even bother to check the legitimacy of the companies they’re dealing with. Investigators didn’t find any transactions where the exchanges have conducted any verification process on any of the companies involved.
It is also highly possible that the exchanges themselves are directly involved in organized crimes, shell companies, and even the black market.
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