In a written statement from Europol, it was reported that the Hong Kong-registered cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato enabled money laundering by converting illegal funds into the Russian currency Ruble.
In the statement, in the operation carried out by the police of the USA and France and supported by the security units of Belgium, Southern Cyprus, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands, the top manager of Bitzlato was in the USA; Chief Executive (CEO), finance director and marketing director in Spain; It was reported that a total of 5 people, one of which was in Southern Cyprus, were detained.
ACCOUNTS FROZEN
In the statement, which emphasized that 18 million euros worth of assets were seized as part of the operation, it was noted that more than 100 crypto money accounts worth 50 million euros in total were also frozen.
46 PERCENT OF TRADED MONEY ILLEGAL FUND
In the statement, it was stated that 46 percent of the total 2.1 billion euro transactions made in Bitzlato were carried out with illegal funds.
In the statement, it was stated that the illegal funds, mostly obtained from cyber fraud, money laundering, ransomware and child abuse crimes, amounted to approximately 1 billion euros, and it was recorded that the website Bitzlato rented from a company registered in France was closed.