News
Binance Collaborates with Taiwan to Solve Multimillion-Dollar Cryptocurrency-Assisted Money Laundering Case
Last updated: May 17, 2024 01:52 EDT | 2 minutes of reading
Binance has partnered with the Investigation Bureau of the Taiwan Ministry of Justice and the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office to resolve a major case involving cryptocurrency-assisted money laundering.
The investigation focused on illicit funds amounting to nearly NT$200 million, or the equivalent of about $6 million, the exchange said in a statement. Press release shared with CryptoNews.
According to the announcement, Binance’s cooperation, leveraging the expertise and intelligence sharing of its Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) department, played a key role in bringing the perpetrators to justice.
Money laundering over a long period
The criminal operation had long facilitated money laundering for fraudulent groups using virtual assets.
The perpetrators used a variety of tactics, including fabricating recordings of customer conversations, proof of remittance, and falsified identity verification data, to create the illusion of legitimate transactions.
However, their activities did not go unnoticed and law enforcement eventually caught up with them.
Police traced and monitored several suspicious cryptocurrency transactions and sought relevant information from various parties, including Binance.
“Upon receipt of the request, Binance responded quickly and organized a cross-border online meeting with investigators and prosecutors to discuss the collaboration strategy,” the exchange wrote.
“Binance’s experienced FCC teams provided insights and recommendations based on crypto flow analyses, helping to more effectively narrow the circle of potential suspects.”
Prosecutor Lo Wei-Yuan of the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, who oversaw the case, later filed indictments against nine suspects for aggravated fraud, violating the Money Laundering Control Act and violation of organized crime prevention regulations last month.
Expressing gratitude for Binance’s cooperation, Prosecutor Lo Wei-Yuan said Binance had “active and ongoing collaboration with Taiwan law enforcement.”
Damien Ho, Binance Asia Pacific (APAC) team representative, said Binance is committed to fighting financial crime and protecting the integrity of the Web3 ecosystem.
“We will continue to uphold this goal and deepen our cooperation with global law enforcement.”
Binance eyes global expansion
Last week, the Financial Intelligence Unit of India (FIU-IND) revealed that Binance had succeeded registered with the regulatory bodyreturning to the country after some regulatory hurdles.
Prior to this, the exchange announced that it had obtained a license from the Dubai regulatorVARA, allowing the platform to address retail as well as qualified and institutional clients.
According to Bloomberg, the licensing process involved Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao giving up voting control of the Dubai unit.
Additionally, earlier this year, Binance unveiled its joint venture crypto exchange Binance Thailandwhich comes in collaboration with Gulf Innova, a subsidiary of Gulf Energy Development.
Binance Thailand, abbreviated as Binance TH, provides a digital asset exchange service platform with Thai baht trading pairs.
It is worth noting that Binance is facing increasing regulatory scrutiny around the world.
Last year, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed charges against Binance for allegedly operating an illegal digital asset derivatives exchange and circumventing federal laws.
Likewise, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission indicted Binance Holdings LTD and ex-CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) for allegedly operating unregistered exchanges, brokerage exchanges, clearing houses, and unregistered offers and sales of securities.