Fraudsters who laundered more than $ 5 billion in cryptocurrency detained in China

Chinese law enforcement agencies have arrested a fraudulent group suspected of laundering more than $ 5 billion in cryptocurrency.

According to local media, the police managed to detain 93 suspects, confiscate more than 100 mobile phones and computers, and uncover more than 10 money laundering schemes. The criminal group had been engaged in illegal activities since 2018, storing stolen and gambling proceeds in cryptocurrency. Later, the digital assets were either converted into fiat currency or transferred to various cryptocurrency wallets.

As it became known, the head of the fraudulent group was Hong Mou, a resident of China, who managed most of the transactions and drew up a plan of further actions. In total, the criminals managed to launder 40 billion yuan ($ 5.6 billion) in 4 years. The further fate of crypto fraudsters will be decided by law enforcement agencies.

Interestingly, despite the high level of cryptocurrency-related crime and strict regulatory policies aimed at preventing such situations, China is one of the world leaders in the introduction of a national cryptocurrency. Last week, China announced the expansion of pilot tests of the national digital currency e-CNY in four provinces: Guangdong, Jiangsu, Hebei, and Sichuan. In total, e-CNY will become available to more than 500 million Chinese citizens.

As a reminder, representatives of the US Financial Services Committee said that China’s active work on the introduction of the digital yuan would negatively affect the American economy, so the only solution is to be proactive by developing its own digital dollar. At a meeting of the Financial Services Committee, government officials voted to create the CBDC to outpace China’s technological development and prevent the dollar from losing its status as the world’s reserve currency.