Money Laundering

Authorities in Switzerland and Germany shut down Cryptomixer.io, a service used to launder Bitcoin, seizing servers, data, and over €25 million in crypto. The operation, supported by Europol, aims to stop criminal activity and provide evidence for further investigations.

William Lonergan Hill, co-founder of Samourai Wallet, has been sentenced to four years in prison for running an unlicensed crypto service used in criminal transactions. His co-founder received five years, and authorities are emphasising consequences for illegal activity linked to privacy-focused crypto tools.

Chinese investors who lost money in a $6 billion Bitcoin Ponzi scheme face a long legal battle to reclaim their funds from 61,000 bitcoins seized by U.K. authorities, now worth over $7.4 billion. The case centres on Qian Zhimin, who pleaded guilty to money laundering, but tracing the coins back to individual victims remains highly complex.

North Korea-linked hackers have stolen over $2 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, including a $1.46 billion breach of Bybit and multiple attacks on smaller platforms. They are increasingly targeting wealthy individuals using scams and social engineering, while laundering stolen funds through complex methods to avoid detection.

Turkey is preparing a law that would let its financial crime agency, Masak, freeze cryptocurrency and bank accounts linked to illegal activity. The rules also aim to strengthen oversight of crypto exchanges and curb the use of rented accounts and suspicious wallets.

Israel has seized 137 cryptocurrency wallets linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, holding an estimated $1.5 billion in USDT. Authorities froze part of the funds using Tether’s blacklisting feature, but most remain active, showing the limits of controlling crypto transactions.

A California man was jailed for more than four years for helping launder nearly \$37 million stolen in a global crypto scam. He was ordered to pay \$26.9 million in restitution, while eight co-conspirators have also admitted guilt.

US banks processed $312 billion in suspicious transactions linked to Chinese money laundering networks between 2020 and 2024. Despite regulatory focus on crypto, most illicit funds still move through traditional banks, not digital platforms.

A South Korean man was arrested in Bangkok for allegedly laundering over $50 million in cryptocurrency into gold bars through a call centre scam. Thai authorities have also detained ten others linked to the scheme as investigations continue into cross-border crypto crimes.

A high-profile investigation into the alleged embezzlement of sukuk funds has taken a digital turn, as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) revealed that approximately RM11 million was converted into digital currency for personal use.