A federal court recently ruled on a major Bitcoin money laundering case, with 14 individuals being implicated. What these people did was no small feat—they laundered dirty money obtained from drug trafficking and kidnapping ransoms through BTC, with the amount involved reaching as high as $95 million.
The two leaders served more than 21 years in prison. The remaining 12 accomplices did not escape either, with sentences ranging from 10 to 17 years.
The details disclosed by the prosecution are even more severe: this gang started operating in 2019 and continued to be arrogant until they were taken down in 2024. Over the course of five years, they took advantage of the anonymity of cryptocurrency to build a complete money laundering network.
It seems that regulators in various countries are really cracking down on cryptocurrency-related crimes. Money laundering with Bitcoin? There will still be punishment.
This page may contain third-party content, which is provided for information purposes only (not representations/warranties) and should not be considered as an endorsement of its views by Gate, nor as financial or professional advice. See Disclaimer for details.
16 Likes
Reward
16
3
Repost
Share
Comment
0/400
NFTArtisanHQ
· 12-01 14:40
ngl the whole "anonymity as a design primitive" narrative is getting demolished here... five years of thinking they could just layer transactions and disappear into the ledger? that's not cutting-edge anymore, that's just naïve at this point.
Reply0
RetailTherapist
· 12-01 14:35
It took five years to get caught, the police efficiency is indeed a bit slow.
---
$95 million was just washed like that, how arrogant do you have to be to mess around like this under the regulators' noses?
---
So this is why I always say on-chain is not true privacy, no matter how anonymous you are, you can't escape investigation.
---
Starting from 2021, this penalty is not low, it seems that it's really getting harder to hide bad deeds in the crypto world.
---
With drugs, kidnapping, and Money Laundering all in operation, these guys are really tough, but unfortunately, they didn't do the technical work well.
---
That being said, with such major cases emerging, retail investors need to be even more careful to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.
---
It took five years to be taken down, could it be that on-chain analysis isn't that advanced yet?
---
A sentence of over 21 years? Brazil didn't go for point shaving this time, thumbs up!
---
I just want to know what clue they leaked that allowed the police to catch them.
View OriginalReply0
DeFiGrayling
· 12-01 14:19
Damn, it took five years to get caught, that's some real guts. Now it's really impossible to use BTC for Money Laundering.
A major case has emerged over there in Brazil.
A federal court recently ruled on a major Bitcoin money laundering case, with 14 individuals being implicated. What these people did was no small feat—they laundered dirty money obtained from drug trafficking and kidnapping ransoms through BTC, with the amount involved reaching as high as $95 million.
The two leaders served more than 21 years in prison. The remaining 12 accomplices did not escape either, with sentences ranging from 10 to 17 years.
The details disclosed by the prosecution are even more severe: this gang started operating in 2019 and continued to be arrogant until they were taken down in 2024. Over the course of five years, they took advantage of the anonymity of cryptocurrency to build a complete money laundering network.
It seems that regulators in various countries are really cracking down on cryptocurrency-related crimes. Money laundering with Bitcoin? There will still be punishment.