British police have frozen £6 million since 2024 to generate illegal crypto revenues

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British police have been frozen, frozen at around £6 million in illegal crypto revenues since the new authority came into effect last year. Prior to that, criminals always used digital assets such as Bitcoin for a variety of illegal activities, including money laundering, tax evasion, and financing terrorism.

There was at least little scrutiny about the activity, but in April 2024, British ministers gathered to launch a crackdown on new threats in the sector. The crackdown has allowed police, other law enforcement, as well as HMRC, UK tax, payments and customs authorities to freeze suspicious funds and cryptocurrency wallets.

Under the regulations, UK law enforcement was given the authority to seize unfair interests from suspected criminal elements and granted approval to freeze crypto wallets for up to three years. Funds frozen in digital assets could be seized under the conditions that the court must meet the holder’s acquisition of a wallet token under illegal circumstances.

British authorities crack down on illegal crypto revenues

An analysis of court documents released over the past six months revealed that the largest code freeze and seizures to date are around £1.5 million, according to a MailOnline report. The document revealed that the funds were kept in a single wallet hosted at US-based Crypto Exchange Coinbase, and that the actual owner remains a mystery. An order filed by HMRC at Newcastle upon Tyne Magistrates Court on March 18 revealed that the funds could be related to tax evasion.

The report claims that while more funds may have been frozen between April and September 2024, data maintained by Courtdesk, an online database for tracking UK and Wales court cases, is only going back a year for legal reasons. According to British Crypto legal expert Nick Bernard, the figure is very small compared to the large funds exchanged during illegal activities. Corker Binning’s partners said these actors run billions of dollars worth of transactions every day, focusing on the amounts seized in traditional accounts by authorities.

Bernard said the new administration launched its operation in April 2024, so it still needs a little time to speed up. Meanwhile, lawyer Siobhain Egan told MailOnline that all freezes are happening as the government pools with more resources and fights money laundering aggressively. Egan, who represents people whose assets have been frozen, is hoping for a “tsunami of freezing orders” in the coming months.

Authorities will strengthen efforts to combat illegal activities

Reports show that British investigators usually work behind the scenes before applying to freeze funds in the wallets of suspects of crime. This means they do it without their knowledge to prevent them from moving their funds. “If police are doing a big investigation into organized criminals who wash their money through code, they’ll come in and seize their assets before they can complete the investigation,” Egan said. She also added that in some cases, the owners of the funds will be invited to answer questions, helping authorities to construct their case.

Egan added that British authorities are wary of villains who use digital assets for illegal activities and are pointing out that they are right to worry about. She added that new forces are using bullets to block the gap in the investigation. It’s noted that it took time to catch up with the rapidly changing world of cryptocurrency. “HMRC is very enthusiastic about its tax evasion efforts and links their actions pretty well. The National Crime Agency (NCA) was also very aggressive,” she said.

She also added that most of the people whose assets were seized and subject to the funds freeze are foreigners. According to public records, digital assets were used last year in trading illegal activities worth around $51 billion. This figure is up from the record $46 billion. This excludes billions of dollars stolen from Sam Bankman-Fried, a co-founder of FTX, who is currently in prison for scaming US clients and investors.

Criminals throw away bitcoins for stablecoins

According to reports of chain melting, criminals are currently dumping Bitcoin to use it for illegal activities. Until around 2020, Bitcoin was the most used asset, and criminals are now switching to tokens pegged to currency. In this case, it is usually dollars. Bernard said that most police and finance investigators have limited knowledge of the crypto industry and are not often dedicated to the UK understanding or investigating them.

He added that more resources are being placed towards investigating money laundering using non-cryptocurrency cash and other traditional methods. He also said that some of the revenue from crimes like drugs are constantly laundered using crypto, but most of the revenue is usually cash. Bernard said it would be practical to freeze funds in known exchanges, knowing that the UK has a connection to implement it.

In a large UK case, around £4.5 billion was seen in Bitcoin seized from take-away workers in China last year. The 42-year-old used money from £5 billion of laundry from an investment scam to provide a luxurious lifestyle. Authorities say she purchased a vehicle worth £30,000 and registered her child at a £6,000 school near the £5 million home. She was arrested while trying to buy a Hampstead Mansion worth £23 million, a Tuscan Villa worth £10 million, and an apartment in Dubai, and an attempt to build a global property empire. She was sentenced to six years in May 2024.