A man in New York has been charged with running a cash-to-bitcoin money laundering scheme in New York. Among other things, the case also shows the negative bias of law enforcement towards crypto.
money laundering via bitcoin
According to a recent Bloomberg report, a 42-year-old man named Thomas Speaker was indicted in New York for allegedly running a “cash-to-Bitcoin” money laundering operation.
The man is believed to have been openly bragging about his works on social media, publicly assuring his clients that they could stay off the radar. Spyker is on Google exploring various means to launder money via bitcoin, while also bragging to friends that its customers include people running credit card scams, and one of them was a ketamine dealer.
Spyker’s customers were also charged with a variety of crimes, including operating an illegal drug marketplace on the dark web.
Alvin Bragg — Manhattan District Attorney — said in a statement that the case “shows us how new technologies like cryptocurrencies can become key drivers of a wide range of criminal activities that can easily spread around the world.”
As alleged, this vast network of international money laundering helped drug smugglers, an organized crime ring, and scammers to hide their criminal activity and circulate their proceeds around the world.
Come on… step back
While it is an undeniable fact that bitcoin, among other cryptocurrencies, can be used for illegal activities, DA Bragg’s above statement seems a bit far-fetched. Firstly, the cost of the whole operation was $2.3 million, which is a lot for a normal person, but not as a huge amount in the criminal world.
Speaking of money laundering, let’s take a step back and perhaps look at how working financial institutions have repeatedly proven to host cash for convicted criminals, drug lords, murderers, and what have you.
A few years ago, we reported that a document leak suggested that major banks facilitated more than $2 trillion in dirty money over several years. If that’s ‘old news,’ let’s look at something more recent.
in February this year, The documents claimed that Credit Suisse operated thousands of accounts of alleged criminals. Of course, this has not yet been proven, but this fact is under investigation should the necessary alarm be raised.
But of course, “this vast web of international money laundering helped drug smugglers, an organized crime ring, and scammers hide their criminal activity,” such that legacy institutions have not been accused of doing so for years.
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