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.”

The Taliban ban on digital currency has brought Afghanistan’s cryptocurrency market, which experienced a massive expansion after the insurgent group took over the country in August last year, to a standstill – says a newstudy by Chainanalysis.

A blockchain bridge linked to Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, was hit by a US$570 million hack last week that drained at least $100 million, the company said.

Brazilian police raided 20 locations throughout the country and seized cash and luxury items from a suspected leader of a transnational cryptocurrency fraud ring that is believed to have stolen nearly US$800 million from investors.

Criminals have laundered at least US$4 billion-worth of illicit crypto proceeds using cross-chain technologies since 2020, new research by blockchain analysis firm Elliptic reveals.

In the latest crackdown on cryptocurrency fraud, China said it arrested 93 suspects of a criminal group that allegedly engaged in a sophisticated nationwide conspiracy to launder up to US$5.6 billion using virtual currencies.

Malaysian authorities have brought home 15 victims of a suspected cybercrime scheme, who had been lured into Cambodia by lucrative yet phony job offers, the country’s foreign ministrysaid.

The U.K. government introduced a new bill to block kleptocrats and criminals’ dirty money from flowing freely through its economy by cracking down on fraud and money laundering.

The South Korean founder of a collapsed cryptocurrency firm, credited with causing the recent crypto-market crash that cost investors US$500 billion, has denied being on the run from accusations of fraud and financial crime probes in multiple jurisdictions.

The U.S. seized over $30 million worth of cryptocurrency stolen from the online game Axie Infinity by North Korean-linked hackers, blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysissaid on Thursday.

Russia will likely soon legalize use of virtual currencies in international trade amid the deepening impact of sanctions brought in response to war in Ukraine.