Federal authorities in the United States have seized $58 million dollars from a Bahamas bank account suspected of laundering crypto funds.
Last month, in a court in the Eastern District of Virginia, US officials filed for a warrant for the seizure of funds in a Bahamas-based Deltec Bank and Trust account. Officials suspected bad actors of using the account for wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering. Authorities have linked certain Deltec customers to shell firms involved in a cross-border scheme. It allegedly involves creating fake cryptocurrency websites to fool victims into depositing their assets or cash.
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The websites allegedly promised victims high returns, but after a time, users found they could not withdraw their funds. Then, Mitsubishi Bank became suspicious when it couldn’t obtain information about the shell companies from Deltec.
Law enforcement identified at least 74 shell companies involved in wire fraud. And traced the funds to custodial accounts before their transfer to accounts in the Bahamas. Law enforcement apparently couldn’t identify the registered agents, business locations, or purposes of two in particular: Axis Digital Limited and GTAL.
In the United States, know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) laws require banks to verify customer identities. Ideally, this allows financial institutions, and law enforcement, to assess money laundering risks and report suspicious transactions.
This is far from the first insta
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Author: Josh Adams
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