The British authorities have handed a six-year sentence to a hospitality worker from Hendon, north London.
Jian Wen was found guilty of money laundering relating to $2.5 billion in Bitcoin. The 42-year-old was previously convicted of converting fiat cash to cryptocurrencies, expensive jewelry, and real estate. Sources claim that Wen’s sudden lifestyle sparked concerns about her source of wealth.
Luxury Lifestyle and Sudden Wealth Raise Suspicions in Bitcoin Case
Wen’s massive shift in lifestyle saw her move to a six-bedroom luxury home in North London in 2017. The mansion was said to have cost over $20,000 a month. Before that, she lived in a modest flat above a Chinese restaurant. The police conducted a follow-up investigation after this significant change, looking through hundreds of digital files. Authorities traced Wen’s newfound wealth to illegal Bitcoin.
Wen’s case is one of the biggest of its kind in the UK. It bears huge similarities with the 2016 hack on Bitfinex, which saw over $2 billion worth of BTC wiped from the exchange. As with Wen, authorities were able to catch the criminals while trying to convert their stolen funds into cash.
Source: X
Treasury is not Trying to Ban Crypto Mixers.
Most crypto critics cite these cases to claim crypto is being used to fund money laundering. Many claim crypto mining companies are the biggest facilitators of digital financial crimes. However, a report from the US Treasury Department dismisses these claims. Interestingly, an official of the department recently denied that it was trying to ban crypto-mixing services.
Brian Nelson, the Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, claimed recent proposals from the agency were not aimed at banning crypto-mixing services. Instead, the goal was to foster transparency.
Previous proposals from the department deemed crypto mixers to be money laundering concerns. Subsequent policies required crypto platforms to report transactions that required mixing. In addition, US authorities have carried out enforcement actions against Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet. Most crypto users view these as efforts to ban crypto-mixing platforms.
Furthermore, Nelson called for ways for the crypto industry and Treasury to work together to boost financial safety. He noted that most crypto-mixers were not designed for privacy but to aid money laundering.
He said, “From our perspective, we believe that there is a difference between obfuscation and anonymity-enhancing services that support privacy; we of course recognize that, in the context of public blockchains, there would be a desire to have a certain degree of privacy. In that spirit, we want to work closely with industry to identify and collaborate on tools that can enhance privacy.”
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