Topic: Dutch Police arrested a man suspected of stealing bitcoin and then laundering it (Read 228 times)
January 15, 2023, 10:40:30 PM
hi
September 22, 2022, 11:12:05 AM
Let's say he offered both Bitcoin and Monero for sale:
For 1 Bitcoin, he sells you 125 Monero.
For 140 Monero, he sells you 1 Bitcoin.
As a trader, those are very easy money makers if someone takes it! I'm starting to wonder what part of this would be illegal: if I do this at an exchange that's not P2P, I'm just very good at trading, right? Buy low, sell high! I don't need to worry about the source of the money I'm trading, just like I don't have to worry about the seller when I buy shares of a company. What's different here? Does P2P trading have a different legal status than trading on an exchange?
September 17, 2022, 03:46:20 AM
(I used google translate)
Why? It literally says [English below] 
Allow me to quote the whole thing:Quote from: https://www.politie.nl/nieuws/2022/september/13/03-man-opgepakt-witwassen-cryptovaluta.html
Man arrested on suspicion of money laundering of cryptocurrency worth tens of millions of euros
In the early morning of September 6th 2022, the Dutch police arrested a 39-year-old man from the village of Veenendaal on charges of money laundering of cryptocurrency worth tens of millions of euros. The police identified the man after tracing bitcoin transactions. The funds were stolen by making use of a malicious software update purporting to be from the open source Electrum wallet.
Investigation showed that the man converted bitcoin into the privacy coin monero [vice versa], which makes the trail of transactions more difficult to track. His service was provided via the anonymous online network Bisq. It is suspected that the man earned a lot from laundering in this way.
When the man was arrested, his home was searched and several data carriers were seized. The police investigation into the data carriers and the virtual currencies held by the man is ongoing. The expected profit that the man made from money laundering was seized in cryptocurrency by the police. The man was released on Thursday 8th of September and remains a suspect.
The investigation is being carried out by the Dutch Police Cybercrimeteam of the Central Netherlands in collaboration with the Cybercrimeteam of the Eastern Netherlands.
What's cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency is a digital payment method: it is money that exists only virtually. With cryptocurrency, you can pay without an intermediary third party (such as a bank). Well known cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin and Ethereum.
How do criminals get to cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency, like ordinary money, is vulnerable to all kinds of crime. In particular the anonymous and cross-border nature of cryptocurrency affords opportunities for criminals. Criminals, for example, can obtain cryptocurrency by means of extortion, hacking or scamming.
Money laundering cryptocurrency
Most cryptocurrencies work in a decentralized manner, as opposed to traditional banks. Cryptocurrency is executed through a distributed public ledger called the blockchain, which provides an overview of all transactions executed. Criminally obtained cryptocurrency must be laundered to obfuscate the criminal origin.
What is Bisq?
Bisq is a decentralized peer-to-peer exchange network, aimed at the privacy of users. Bisq is a platform that is used to trade bitcoin into different kinds of cryptocurrency and fiduciary currency (such as euros) over the Bitcoin blockchain.
Police and cryptocurrency
More and more people are using cryptocurrency. And so are criminals. This is why the police has investigators specialized in cryptocurrency. The number of financial and digital investigations with a cryptocurrency component is increasing. In the fight against cybercriminals, the Dutch police are working closely with partners in the Netherlands and abroad. For example authorities, banks and other companies are conducting joint investigations with the police, exchanging information and detecting suspects.
In the early morning of September 6th 2022, the Dutch police arrested a 39-year-old man from the village of Veenendaal on charges of money laundering of cryptocurrency worth tens of millions of euros. The police identified the man after tracing bitcoin transactions. The funds were stolen by making use of a malicious software update purporting to be from the open source Electrum wallet.
Investigation showed that the man converted bitcoin into the privacy coin monero [vice versa], which makes the trail of transactions more difficult to track. His service was provided via the anonymous online network Bisq. It is suspected that the man earned a lot from laundering in this way.
When the man was arrested, his home was searched and several data carriers were seized. The police investigation into the data carriers and the virtual currencies held by the man is ongoing. The expected profit that the man made from money laundering was seized in cryptocurrency by the police. The man was released on Thursday 8th of September and remains a suspect.
The investigation is being carried out by the Dutch Police Cybercrimeteam of the Central Netherlands in collaboration with the Cybercrimeteam of the Eastern Netherlands.
What's cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency is a digital payment method: it is money that exists only virtually. With cryptocurrency, you can pay without an intermediary third party (such as a bank). Well known cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin and Ethereum.
How do criminals get to cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency, like ordinary money, is vulnerable to all kinds of crime. In particular the anonymous and cross-border nature of cryptocurrency affords opportunities for criminals. Criminals, for example, can obtain cryptocurrency by means of extortion, hacking or scamming.
Money laundering cryptocurrency
Most cryptocurrencies work in a decentralized manner, as opposed to traditional banks. Cryptocurrency is executed through a distributed public ledger called the blockchain, which provides an overview of all transactions executed. Criminally obtained cryptocurrency must be laundered to obfuscate the criminal origin.
What is Bisq?
Bisq is a decentralized peer-to-peer exchange network, aimed at the privacy of users. Bisq is a platform that is used to trade bitcoin into different kinds of cryptocurrency and fiduciary currency (such as euros) over the Bitcoin blockchain.
Police and cryptocurrency
More and more people are using cryptocurrency. And so are criminals. This is why the police has investigators specialized in cryptocurrency. The number of financial and digital investigations with a cryptocurrency component is increasing. In the fight against cybercriminals, the Dutch police are working closely with partners in the Netherlands and abroad. For example authorities, banks and other companies are conducting joint investigations with the police, exchanging information and detecting suspects.
Since this is posted in Legal, I'll move this here:
After reading it again, I'm starting to think the guy was just trading:
Quote from: https://www.politie.nl/nieuws/2022/september/13/03-man-opgepakt-witwassen-cryptovaluta.html
Investigation showed that the man converted bitcoin into the privacy coin monero [vice versa], which makes the trail of transactions more difficult to track. His service was provided via the anonymous online network Bisq. It is suspected that the man earned a lot from laundering in this way.
Let's say he offered both Bitcoin and Monero for sale:For 1 Bitcoin, he sells you 125 Monero.
For 140 Monero, he sells you 1 Bitcoin.
As a trader, those are very easy money makers if someone takes it! I'm starting to wonder what part of this would be illegal: if I do this at an exchange that's not P2P, I'm just very good at trading, right? Buy low, sell high! I don't need to worry about the source of the money I'm trading, just like I don't have to worry about the seller when I buy shares of a company. What's different here? Does P2P trading have a different legal status than trading on an exchange?
September 16, 2022, 01:51:26 PM
and now they seize everything as a evidence. Of course the money can't be return from those victims, .
Returning the stolen coins may still be possible if the police can trace the addresses but that isn't a major problem than to find the coins intact if it has not been converted and lavished. Hackers have a lifestyle of rough living and being irresponsible. To verify the addresses and send the coins back I don't think it is that much of the challenge.
September 14, 2022, 05:08:31 AM
If it matters, this is also discussed in Press: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/2022-09-13-man-arrested-for-laundering-millions-from-malicious-electrum-update-5413422
September 13, 2022, 11:23:09 PM
According to this report:
https://www.politie.nl/nieuws/2022/september/13/03-man-opgepakt-witwassen-cryptovaluta.html
(I used google translate)
Probably one who created a rouge Electrum software or anything that do with Electrum way back like years ago when it was a target of attack and many crypto enthusiast lost a lot of money on it. And it seems the man try to launder and hide the money as well but he was tracked down by the Police. And I suspect that it also take a lot of effort from the Dutch Police to be able to track him down at his home address, and now they seize everything as a evidence. Of course the money can't be return from those victims, but hopefully this man could end up with a good amount of jail time because of his criminal acts.
https://www.politie.nl/nieuws/2022/september/13/03-man-opgepakt-witwassen-cryptovaluta.html
(I used google translate)
Quote
Veenendaal - In the night of 5 to 6 September 2022, the police arrested a 39-year-old man from Veenendaal on suspicion of laundering criminal money via cryptocurrencies worth tens of millions of euros. The police tracked down the man after stolen bitcoins from a rogue software update of Electrum wallet ended up with him.
Probably one who created a rouge Electrum software or anything that do with Electrum way back like years ago when it was a target of attack and many crypto enthusiast lost a lot of money on it. And it seems the man try to launder and hide the money as well but he was tracked down by the Police. And I suspect that it also take a lot of effort from the Dutch Police to be able to track him down at his home address, and now they seize everything as a evidence. Of course the money can't be return from those victims, but hopefully this man could end up with a good amount of jail time because of his criminal acts.
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