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German authorities have shut down 47 crypto exchanges, citing illegal activities such as money laundering.
These platforms deliberately failed to accomplish their legal obligations, including failure to conduct user verifications.
German Authorities Shut Down 47 #Crypto Exchanges Over Serious Money Laundering Allegations The BKA accused exchanges like Xchange Cash, 60cek, and Baksman of deliberately skipping KYC checks and violating customer ID requirements
According to the press release,
The Prosecutor General of Frankfurt am Main – Central Office for Combating Cybercrime (ZIT) – and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) have shut down 47 Exchange Services hosted in Germany that have been used for criminal purposes. These platforms on which conventional currencies and cryptocurrencies could be exchanged.
The exchanges failed to fulfill legal requirements such as conducting verifications like KYC (Know Your Customer).
Moreover, the platform allowed criminals to anonymously and easily convert ill-gotten funds “to disguise their origin.”
The anonymous transactions created a perfect environment for illicit deals such as money laundering. Meanwhile, the crackdown saw Xchange.cash – a leading exchange that has operated since 2012 going offline.
The platform had over 410K users, facilitating approximately 1.3 million transactions.
Other notable switched-off exchanges are 60cek.org, boasting over 300K users and 900K transactions, and Bankcomat.com – with over 250K users and 760K transactions.
Moreover, the regulators have secured massive user and transaction information from the seized exchanges.
They will use the data for further investigations.
The crackdown is yet to make an arrest.
Nonetheless, the BKA confirmed that the operators of the shutdown exchanges face money laundering and illegal internet trading charges.
The operators of the now switched-off Exhange-Services are accused of deliberately inadequate implementation of legal requirements to combat money laundering (so-called know-your-customer-principle) disguised the origin of criminally obtained funds on a large scale, and thus the money laundering and the operation of criminal trading platforms on the internet.
Meanwhile, the operators violated the German Criminal Code Section 127 and 261, which could lead to multi-year imprisonment.
The regulators acknowledged the challenges of accessing these cybercriminals, with most residing in jurisdictions that allow such undertakings.
Nevertheless, the latest seizure of exchanges boasting massive user bases and transaction volumes demonstrates the magnitude of the clampdown.
Crypto crackdown in Germany
The BKA has actively scrutinized cryptocurrency-related crimes.
It seized Bitcoin worth $2.1B at the time (49,857 BTC) early this year from Movie2K website, which has been offline since 2013 due to copyright violation.
The German Government is now on Arkham. The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) seized almost 50,000 BTC ($2.12B) from the operators of Movie2k.to, a film piracy website that was active in 2013. The BKA received the Bitcoin in mid-January after a ‘voluntary…
The agency started selling the assets in July, triggering massive bearish pressure in the digital assets space.
The latest exchange shutdown reflects German’s commitment to fighting crypto-related cybercrime.
Regulators are planning to crash global channels that facilitate illegal transactions involving crypto.
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