Money Laundering

That’s not exactly the kind of “mixer” we’re talking about here, but crypto bros do often talk about seeing the price of their coins “go to 11.”Photo: Satheesh Sankaran (Shutterstock)Authorities claimthat founders of a “decentralized” and “open source” project run mostly by the community were making “large-scale profits” off illicit funds funneled through their platform, and now at least one founder has come face-to-face with the long arm of Dutch law enforcement.The Netherlands’ Fiscal Information and Investigation…

SAN FRANCISCO—Former Twitter Inc. employee Ahmad Abouammo was found guilty of spying for Saudi Arabia after passing on private user information associated with critics of the kingdom in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars.Mr. Abouammo, 44, who worked at Twitter from 2013 to 2015 managing media partnerships with high-profile users in the Middle East and North Africa, was also found guilty of money laundering, falsification of records and one count of wire fraud by the 11-person jury…

A whopping Rs 62,476 crore has been "illegally" transferred by smartphone maker Vivo to China in order to avoid payment of taxes in India, the Enforcement Directorate said Thursday, as it claimed to have busted a major money laundering racket involving Chinese nationals and multiple Indian companies.This money is almost half of Vivo's turnover of Rs. 1,25,185 crore, it said without stating the time period of the transaction.The crackdown on the leading Chinese company came after the federal probe agency found that three…

India's financial crime agency said on Thursday it has blocked 119 bank accounts linked to Vivo's India business that were holding 4.65 billion rupees ($58.76 million), as part of a probe into alleged money laundering by the Chinese smartphone maker. The Enforcement Directorate said it raided 48 locations of Vivo and its 23 related entities this week, alleging that sale proceeds of Vivo India were transferred out of India to show losses and avoid paying taxes. Vivo, owned by China's BBK Electronics, did not immediately…

Vivo India directors Zhengshen Ou and Zhang Jie left the country as the Enforcement Directorate intensified its inquiry into the money laundering case against the Chinese firm, said sources.The information comes a day after the agency carried out searches at 40 locations in connection with the case.The federal agency on Tuesday conducted searches at 40 locations in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and some southern states in connection with a case linked to Vivo Mobile Communications and some other Chinese firms.The case is…

Ruja Ignatova, the once-founder of OneCoin, is now on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted.Screenshot: FBI VideoRuja Ignatova, who in the past dubbed herself the “Cryptoqueen,” is now sitting with a fancy crown in a new royal court: the FBI’s top 10 most wanted.FBI officials and federal prosecutors announced Ignatova’s new designation in a press conference Thursday. Ignatova was charged in 2019 with wire fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering for her part in the OneCoin crypto company that prosecutors …

Enjoy this great picture of John Kerry, who formerly chaired the Kerry Commission into claims of government-related drug smuggling. Photo: ROBERT GIROUX/AFP (Getty Images)The Bank of Credit and Commerce International, or BCCI, was a Pakistani bank established in 1972 that came to be known by the nickname the “Bank of Crooks and Criminals,” due to its penchant for shady clients. During the decades after its founding, BCCI became a global hub for illicit activity and housed accounts for pretty much every kind of unsavory…

The Justice Department charged a former employee of an NFT marketplace with fraud and money laundering in what prosecutors said was the first case to involve insider trading of the digital tokens. An indictment unsealed Wednesday in New York charged Nathaniel Chastain, a 31-year-old former product manager at the online marketplace OpenSea, with using inside information to profit on NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, that were to be featured on his employer’s home…