Dutch police arrest man for laundering millions using crypto by DailyCoin

The Dutch police have released a statement saying that the department recently arrested a 39-year-old man from Veenendaal, a city in the central Netherlands, on suspicion of laundering criminal money via cryptocurrencies worth tens of millions of euros.

In the statement, the police clarified that they tracked down the accused after stolen bitcoins (BTC) from a rogue software update of the Electrum wallet, one of the popular wallets, ended up in his possession.

The criminal investigation is being carried out by the cybercrime team of the Central Netherlands Police, in cooperation with the cybercrime team of the East Netherlands Police.

During further investigation, the police found that the man converted Bitcoin to the privacy coin Monero and vice versa. Monero is a decentralized cryptocurrency. It uses a publicly distributed ledger with privacy-enhancing technologies that obfuscate transactions to achieve anonymity and fungibility.

The use of Monero made the stolen crypto more difficult to trace, according to Dutch police. The police have also considered that the accused may use Bisq, a decentralized Bitcoin exchange network, to launder the money.

The police seized various data carriers from the accused’s home

The police revealed that during the arrest they searched the home of the accused and seized various data carriers.

“The police investigation continues, including the digital means of payment in the man’s possession and the data carriers,” the statement said. “The expected profit the man would have made from the money laundering could be seized by the police in the form of cryptocurrencies.”

However, the accused was sent home soon after the arrest, but remains a suspect.

In a recent money-laundering case, the Netherlands also extradited a Russian man to the US for allegedly laundering cryptocurrencies, uncovering an international money-laundering conspiracy.

The Netherlands has actively regulated crypto

In May 2020, the Netherlands introduced the Dutch Implementing Act as a European directive for strict anti-money laundering rules, with the Dutch central bank as the main regulatory entity for cryptocurrencies. The country has actively regulated platforms for the exchange of cryptocurrencies to fiat money, and crypto depository providers were regulated in the Netherlands.

On the other side

• The Netherlands is considered a largely crypto-friendly place mainly because there is no capital gains tax.

Why you should care

The Netherlands has enforced a regulatory stance on crypto. Crypto-related activities in the Netherlands have come under increased scrutiny mainly due to compliance issues.

Read more about the crypto development in the Netherlands:

Is Bitcoin suitable to be a payment method in the Netherlands?

The Netherlands’ stance on cryptocurrencies

The Netherlands is asking for a key role in the development of the digital euro

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