Police in Georgia have arrested five Russian nationals accused of processing at least $37 million in illegal cryptocurrency transactions as part of a money laundering operation.
The Georgia Department of Treasury announced Thursday the arrests, which were made in coordination with the Georgia Attorney General’s Office.
The group appears to have been operating a virtual currency remittance service in Georgia without registering with a national bank, and was accused of “legalizing illegal income.”
Officials say hundreds of millions of Georgian liras worth of cryptocurrency transactions have been processed in the past few months. 100 million lire is equivalent to approximately $37 million.
Users also Provided “courier” service This allegedly bypasses authorities and transports foreign currency across borders before converting the funds into cryptocurrencies.
Read more: Did Grinex related to Garantex move $6 billion to avoid sanctions?
Police reportedly seized $100,000 for cryptocurrency purchases, $250,000 from a vehicle with Russian license plates, $371,000, accounting data, and computer equipment.
Neither individuals nor companies were named in the report. Those involved face up to 12 years in prison.
A multibillion-dollar Russian crypto money laundering network is reportedly helping Russian thieves and British drug gangs convert illegally obtained funds into untraceable cryptocurrencies.
Kyrgyzstan-based exchange Greenex is suspected of having ties to Russian trading platform Galantex. Successfully bypassed US sanctions and moved billions of dollars in cryptocurrencies.
Galantex is accused of aiding and abetting billions of dollars’ worth of illegal financing for large-scale criminal organizations. The company’s independent financial network has been hit with a series of sanctions from the UK and US this year.
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