A total of 63 people have been arrested in China on suspicion of money laundering. A total of 12 billion Chinese yuan, or $1.7 billion, is alleged to have been laundered by the individuals. Beijing is intensifying its crackdown on digital currency trading with the arrest.
The Chinese police arrest people accused of laundering $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency
source: business2community
Last May, the group started laundering crypto assets. Fraud, pyramid schemes, and gambling were used to launder money. In the future, the USDT stablecoin will be backed by the proceeds from these activities. UST is a stablecoin backed by Tether that is pegged to the US dollar at a 1:1 ratio.
The Public Security Bureau of Tongliao City in Inner Mongolia announced this arrest. They also created multiple accounts in which they traded cryptocurrencies before converting them back to Chinese yuan after converting the funds into USDT stablecoin.
A number of people were also hired to create crypto accounts around the country by the group. Chinese authorities have banned Telegram, the messaging platform used by these hires. China police said the recruited people would be used to launder illicit funds by creating crypto trading accounts.
A commission was promised to people who created these accounts based on how much money they laundered. It has been confirmed by the police that the proceeds seized from the gang equal more than 130 million Chinese yuan.
After discovering that one of the suspects used his bank account to make monthly transactions of over 10 million yuan, the Public Security Bureau received an alert. Additionally, two suspects who were involved in laundering activities fled to Bangkok, but were urged to return to China by the police.
Ban on crypto activity in China
Crypto trading and mining activities have been heavily restricted in China since last year. The country banned all crypto-related activities at the time, which remains in effect today. The largest global crypto hub, China accounted for the highest Bitcoin mining hash rate before the ban.
Beijing has attempted to eliminate crypto trading and mining from the country, but has been unsuccessful. In the country, there are still significant amounts of digital asset activities. It is also back among the world’s largest mining locations for Bitcoin.
Among the ways Chinese users access cryptocurrencies is by trading them on overseas exchanges. Chinese users have found it more difficult to access cryptocurrencies in recent months as Beijing has intensified its crackdown.
Over 1,100 people were arrested in Beijing in 2021 for using cryptocurrencies to launder money. As a crypto hub, China could once again disappear from the map if the government succeeds in its efforts.
