Brazilian Authorities Confiscate $33M During An Investigation Into A Money-Laundering Operation
A police investigation into a potential money laundering scheme concluded in the seizure of 172m R$, which equates to roughly 33 m U.
On the 22nd of July 2021, Brazilian officials executed six warrants for searches, as per a public announcement. They performed investigations in Sao Paulo and Diadema. After this, the courts granted the police authority to confiscate the possessions of two persons as well as Seventeen corporations. The bank accounts of the two accused of breaking the law have subsequently been frozen by the country’s court.
Inquiries have revealed that the suspects established a bunch of fake businesses in order to get entry into the financial system. Huge sums of BTC were sold off to such firms through cryptocurrency exchanges. In particular, over the span of 5 months, one particular trading platform sent R$10m (which equates to roughly $1.92m) worth of Bitcoin to 6 of such bogusly operating businesses. At the same time, additional eight fake firms amassed R$15m (which equates to roughly $2.88m) worth of Bitcoin within a similar time span.
The inquiry determined that perhaps the suspects transmitted the funds to foreign firms. The said funds in question were subsequently repatriated by such offshore businesses in the shape of services and sales.
As per the statement of the police, the trading platform chose not to take any procedures to verify the validity of their customers who they were serving. They also did not investigate the source of their customers’ purchases. Additionally, the police statement pointed to the close exclusive affiliations of these transactions with organized crime, shell businesses, and the illegal trading marketplace.
The Brazilian stock market has embraced Ethereum
Brazil seems to have been the home of newer, more reputable cryptocurrency transactions. More notably, in recent times, an Ether ETF was approved for listing on the nation’s 2nd-oldest stocks market, B3. As per the sources, this step establishes the 2nd oldest stock market, B3, as the 1st Latin American trading platform to provide a 100 percent Ether Exchange Traded Fund. According to sources, the Winklevoss twins’ trading platform Gemini would also offer custody functionality for the ETF.
A Rio de Janeiro-based digital currency investment firm, QR Capital, will offer the funds using the stock symbol “QETH11”. The country’s securities authority, the CVM, already have approved a Bitcoin Exchange Trade Fund in this year March. As per the reporting sources, this would be the first Exchange Trade Fund to be offered in South America.
