Hong Kong dismantles $ 150 million crypto money laundering ring the Register

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The Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department yesterday arrested four men for alleged money laundering using cryptocurrency.

The department said it detected multiple transactions in a coin named Tether, the value of which rebounded between a crypto exchange, local banks, another crypto exchange, and banks in Singapore.

HK $ 1.2 billion (US $ 155 million) was reportedly laundered by the four suspects, which authorities said was the first case of crypto-money laundering detected in the Special Administrative Region (SAR). The launderers were busy: Multiple daily HK $ 20 million transactions were sometimes detected during their scheme, which ran from early 2020 to May 2021.

Mark Woo, the head of the Departments Crimes Investigation Bureau, told local media that the investigation faces huge challenges because the cryptocurrency is anonymous. Its concealment is very high.

The agency was, however, able to decipher the ownership of around 40 crypto wallets and link them to the four defendants, but released them on bail rather than immediately press charges.

Also on Thursday, Hong Kong announced plans to release its controversial anti-doxxing laws today.

The laws make posting personal information a criminal offense, a change deemed worthy after the spread of doxxing during pro-democracy protests in the SAR. The law will also create an obligation for social media companies and other web publishers to remove doxxed content.

The bill will become law without changes suggested by the Asian big tech lobby, the Asia Internet Coalition, which said the law was not necessary because its own content removal procedures are adequate and litigation over doxxing has been suggested outside of Hong Kong.

The SAR’s announcement of the publication of the bills indicates that the administration and the Coalition have since had discussions and agreed to continue to strengthen communication in the future, to allow industry to better understand the purpose and content of the bill in order to allay any concerns. .

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