Cryptocurrency has established itself as the preferred method of payment for transnational organized crime groups involved in the fentanyl trade, particularly those operating from China-based chemical precursor manufacturers.

Bitfinex failed to implement operational, financial, and technological controls proposed by its digital security partner, according to a document obtained by reporters.

(Photo: James O’Brien/OCCRP)

A U.S. court charged a China-based representative of North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank with two counts related to laundering illicit crypto proceeds for the benefit of the North Korean nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program, according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Cyberware criminals, drug traffickers, and even hostile state actors can abuse decentralized finance services (DeFi) to transfer and launder their ill-gotten gains through the U.S. without allerting financial authorities, the U.S. Department of the Treasury warned in its latestassessment.

Federal regulators said Lindsay Lohan, Akon, recording artists Ne-Yo, and Lil Yachty, boxer and internet personality Jake Paul, and pornstar Kendra Lust, agreed to pay more than US$400,000 to settle charges that they failed to disclose payments they received from a diplomat for promoting cryptocurrencies on social media.

U.S. and European authorities reported Thursday that they have taken down ChipMixer, a cryptocurrency mixer well-known in the cybercriminal underground and suspected of having laundered more than US$3 billion worth of cryptocurrency.

Hackers stole US$3.8 billion worth of cryptocurrency last year, surpassing the $3.3 billion record registered in 2021 despite a dramatic fall in the crypto market’s value, according to a newreport by blockchain analysis firm Chainanalysis. North Korean hackers stole most of it.

The CEO of the purported cryptocurrency and foreign exchange trading platform EminiFX pleaded guilty to defrauding tens of thousands of investors out of almost a quarter of a billion dollars.

A Russian cryptocurrency money laundererpleaded guilty in U.S. federal court, tying off a conspiracy in which he and his partners laundered the proceeds of the Ryuk ransomware from 2018 to 2021.

A former manager at the cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase Global, Inc. pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of an insider crypto trading scheme, a plea which the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) calls the first of its kind.

Police in the United States and in the EU arrested five people and seized their globally operating Hong Kong-registered cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato because it allegedly facilitated the laundering of large sums of illicit profits and converted them into Russian rubles, a Europolstatement said on Monday.

The crypto exchange platform Coinbase agreed Wednesday to pay US$100 million to settle charges levied by the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) after it was found to have violated anti-money-laundering laws and not be up to code in managing its security protocols.

Two people linked to the now defunct crypto exchange platform FTX Trading Ltd. pleaded guilty to criminal charges for their role in a multi-year scheme that defrauded investors of billions of dollars, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams announced Wednesday.

“I’m the boss of the pyramid scammers, right?” the Brazilian ‘Bitcoin Sheik’ boasted in a private video released to media by investigators.

In China’s latest crackdown on cryptocurrency fraud, police say they arrested 63 people suspected of helping domestic and foreign criminal groups launder the equivalent of US$1.7 billion through virtual currencies, according to a statement released last weekend.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Tuesdaycharged the CEO of a now-defunct crypto exchange platform with orchestrating a scheme to defraud his investors as well as regular customers of billions of dollars.

Four Chinese nationals living in Sydney, Australia, were charged for their alleged role in a cyber enabled investment scam that swindled more than US$100 million from victims world-wide, especially in the U.S., according to astatement released by the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Two Estonian men suspected of masterminding a US$575 million cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering conspiracy were arrested in a joint operation by Estonian police and the FBI on Sunday.

The state-sponsored cyber programs of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are the greatest strategic threats to Canadian online security, the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security claims in its latest National Cyber Threat Assessment.

A man named Avraham Eisenberg revealed himself to be one of the hackers behind last week’s US$114 million exploit of decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Mango Markets, and returned $67 million as he defended his actions to be a “highly profitable trading strategy.”