Crypto crime is relatively common within the space, and the latest instigator – a 35-year-old woman in the United Kingdom who remains unnamed at the time of writing – has been caught with roughly 115,000 pounds of illegally garnered bitcoin in her possession.Bitcoin Is at the Center of a Lot of CrimeThe news comes by way of the Met’s Proactive Money Laundering Team. Detectives first opened an investigation into the woman’s financial dealings after she applied for several “bounce back loans,” which are business loans designed to assist enterprises during the coronavirus pandemic. They are similar with the PPP loans utilized in the United States. If your business is in trouble, you can apply for a loan that grants various perks such as delayed payments or little to no interest.Loan
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Crypto crime is relatively common within the space, and the latest instigator – a 35-year-old woman in the United Kingdom who remains unnamed at the time of writing – has been caught with roughly 115,000 pounds of illegally garnered bitcoin in her possession.
Bitcoin Is at the Center of a Lot of Crime
The news comes by way of the Met’s Proactive Money Laundering Team. Detectives first opened an investigation into the woman’s financial dealings after she applied for several “bounce back loans,” which are business loans designed to assist enterprises during the coronavirus pandemic. They are similar with the PPP loans utilized in the United States. If your business is in trouble, you can apply for a loan that grants various perks such as delayed payments or little to no interest.
Loan documentation seemed to suggest that the woman held a lot of bitcoin, which would have been fine except during the background check, the origins of the coins could not be properly uncovered by those in charge. Things looked even weirder when the woman put down several of what are known as “mule banks,” or rather institutions that are not valid or regulated through standard financial means to obtain money from the loans.
After examining the woman’s behavior even further, it was discovered that the money was later transferred from these mule banks into cryptocurrency wallets owned and operated by the client. This led to a search warrant being issued so that federal regulators could examine the woman’s home to garner a clearer understanding of the dealings she was involved in.
Met officers and law enforcement agents from the Suffolk Constabulary’s Proactive Crime Team meandered through the woman’s home in the village of Ipswich. They report having found numerous abandoned children throughout the property, though not much is known about them at this time. It wasn’t long before the woman was apprehended and later arrested on suspicion of fraud and numerous other crimes, including child neglect money laundering.
While the woman was later taken to a local police station and questioned, she was released not long after. The suspecting officers who conducted the home raid have now turned to the London magistrates’ court to see about seizing what they claim was illegally garnered bitcoin funds locked away in her digital wallet.
Things Like This Seem to Happen a Lot
In a statement, Detective Sergeant Ian Barrett of the Met’s Proactive Money Laundering Team explained:
I would like to assure the public that the Met remains committed to working with institutions in the regulated financial sector and law enforcement partners to tackle organized financial crime and bring these serious criminals to justice.
Crypto crime has been running rampant as of late, with one of the biggest examples being the Twitter BTC hack that saw more than $121,000 in digital funds stolen by a 17-year-old hacker named Graham Clark.