Laundering Drug Money: Why Mafia Can’t Hide Behind Bitcoin
Mexican drug cartels generate a lot of profit in the USA, which is one of their main markets. How is this money transferred back to Mexico? Banks – the old favourite. In the past, drug cartels had cozy relationships with banks, which facilitated the transfer of drug proceeds. In 2012, HSBC reached a $1.9 Bn agreement with the United States admitting that it had enabled Mexican drug cartels to launder billions of dollars through its counters. The charges include failure to monitor more than $670 Bn of wire transfers and more than $9Bn of purchases of US dollars from HSBC Mexico. The....
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Italy is known for pizza, spaghetti and, unfortunately, for its mafia. The mafia is a criminal world that controls the Italian drugs trade, prostitution, gambling and other illegal activities. Of course, all the money received from those illegal activities has to be laundered and it seems that the mafia has started to use Bitcoin for this task. At least this is what was suggested by the Italian Senator from the Democratic Party (Pd), Lucrezia Ricchiuti. As was originally reported by the magazine PressGiochi, the Italian mafia might start using Bitcoin to facilitate the development of its....
An international crime expert has labeled London the center of international money laundering, saying the city's major banks disregard the anti-money laundering regulation that at the same time burdens FinTech startups. Roberto Saviano — the author of the popular crime investigation books “Gomorrah” and “Zero Zero Zero,” dealing with the Italian mafia and the cocaine trade, respectively — made the comment in an interview on July 4. In June, the UK's National Crime Agency published a report on the state of 'Serious and Organized Crime' in the country, which described how money laundering....
An Italian politician has asserted that the digital currency bitcoin is providing Italian mobsters with a legal way of entering the gambling sector. According to Lucrezia Ricchiuti, who is a member of the Italian Democratic Party, she believes that it is possible to link bitcoin to casino operations that are run by the mafia. She is of the opinion that due to a rise in the use of the currency this provides an ideal avenue for the gambling industry in the country to be utilized for tax evasion. In a report from Press Giochi, an Italian news site, she is reported as saying that it is....
The U.S. Department of Justice charged the six individuals for alleged involvement in laundering funds from Mexican drug cartels after an investigation spanning years.
A technology has two aspects - good and bad. The aspects however are not integrated within the functions of a technology; but instead, it is implied by its operator - the man - which decides whether to utilize an innovation for a good or bad purpose. Bitcoin somewhere has fallen between these two distinctive flocks: one, which is trying to utilize its technology for making banking easier, faster and cheaper; the other, which is abusing it for all notorious crimes that hold the power to destabilize order. Speaking particular about the latter, criminals indeed have found an accessible....