Twenty-one people have been charged with using cryptocurrency to launder money stolen through fraud schemes.
The individuals were involved with transnational money laundering networks that helped foreign criminal gangs move fraud proceeds stolen from U.S. victims, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Texas said in a Wednesday (Nov. 30) press release.
“These defendants orchestrated highly organized and sophisticated schemes to launder fraud proceeds through cryptocurrency,” U.S. Attorney Brit Featherston said in the release. “Today’s announcement sends a clear message that money laundering networks that service fraud schemes targeting American victims, especially the elderly, will not be tolerated, and those operating such networks will be held accountable.”
The money was stolen through romance scams, business email compromises, technical support schemes and other fraud schemes, and the investigation has so far disrupted more than $300 million in annual money laundering transactions, according to the press release.
“Cybercrime has become an all-too-common way for foreign criminal actors to prey on Americans,” Thomas Noyes, inspector in charge of the Postal Inspection Service’s Fort Worth Division, said in the release.
The investigation that led to these charges, which has been dubbed Operation Crypto Runner, is still underway and is being conducted by the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and prosecuted by U.S. attorneys.
“These arrests are just the beginning,” said William Smarr, special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Dallas Field Office. “We are committed to bringing each of the remaining perpetrators to justice.”
This news comes one day after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced that a man has pleaded guilty to defrauding customers who bought cryptocurrency-mining products and services.
In that case, Chester J. “Chet” Stojanovich told customers he would provide them with the products and services, but instead kept the money and didn’t deliver what he’d promised.
How Consumers Pay Online With Stored Credentials
Convenience drives some consumers to store their payment credentials with merchants, while security concerns give other customers pause. For “How We Pay Digitally: Stored Credentials Edition,” a collaboration with Amazon Web Services, PYMNTS surveyed 2,102 U.S. consumers to analyze consumers’ dilemma and reveal how merchants can win over holdouts.
