The Dutch Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) has arrested two men for their alleged involvement in money laundering using digital currencies.
Per the official statement released on February 18, the two men were arrested in two separate criminal investigations. Both arrests were made on Monday in the investigations led by the National Office for Serious Fraud, Environmental Crime, and Asset Confiscation.
For the first accused, a 45-year old Dutch national, the authorities are suspecting his involvement in laundering approximately €2.1 million (around $2.27 million).
The investigation found that he made large purchases with a crypto credit card and concealed the income source from the tax authorities. He further made several cash withdrawals of €10,000 (around $10,800) using the same card, none of which he could explain to the authorities.
The authorities also seized three kilograms of gold, €260,000 (almost $28,000) in Cryptocurrencies , debit, and credit cards with both cryptocurrencies and euros, a car and luxury items such as watches and other jewelry from the possession of the accused person.
The second arrested person is accused of laundering approximately €100,000 (around $1.08 million), along with his partner. The press release also detailed that the accused had used Bestmixer.io, a digital currency mixing platform, to hide the past transactions of the ill-gotten cryptos.
Exploiting the anonymity of crypto
Cryptocurrency mixing or tumbler services shake up the transaction data of non-private coins to make the transaction sources untraceable, resembling transactions with a privacy-oriented digital currency. These services clear the record of any digital asset that was involved in illegal or shady activity, making them clean.
Last year, Finance Magnates reported the forced suspension of Bestmixer.io’s services by FIOD along with Europol and Luxembourg authorities.
The investigation was a part of J5, an alliance formed by the tax enforcement authorities from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States to share financial data to nab criminals.
