The illegal use of cryptocurrencies has recently flourished in Argentina. It is claimed that he used cryptocurrency to launder millions of dollars for organized crime groups.
The culprit claimed to have the finances via phishing schemes using bogus websites, as reported by the local press. The tokens were transferred through an exchange, which alerted local police after seeing suspicious activity on the suspect’s account.
The police launched an investigation, which led to the exposure of a high-profile money laundering conspiracy including the fraudulent use of cloned bank pages to defraud the public. During this time period, the authorities were able to track down the masterminds behind the fraud, including the victims who gave their identities to create bank accounts, the recruiters, and the ones responsible for cloning the bank’s website.
The inquiry also found that the inmate had used a hardware wallet to conceal the origin of $11.57 million in cryptocurrency. Due to its mobility and ease of access, hardware wallets have become the preferred method of money laundering among criminals. To access tokens stored in a hard wallet, a user connects the wallet (often shaped like a pen drive) to a computer and enters a seed phrase (a 12-word password).
The police said the arrest of the main suspect in the money laundering scheme concludes their investigation into the case. The Argentine government has been cracking down on cybercrime, with 70 simultaneous police operations in several cities.
While this is good news for the government, it will likely cast a shadow over crypto-assets once again. The United States and Europe have implemented rigorous steps to regulate cryptocurrency as an alternative payment method, while China and Nigeria have outright prohibited it.
Also Read: A Moroccan Crypto Scam Exposes BTC Purchases Gone Wrong
Wallets