The Metropolitan police in Scotland Yard has been able to seize a whooping £114m worth of Bitcoin as part of their investigation into money laundering offences in the country.
According to reports, this is said to be double the cash amount that was seized last year 2020 In the UK, and the biggest confiscation in the history of Cryptocurrency.
If not for the fall Crypto currency value two months ago, the seized amount will have been worth the double as it is a known fact the value fell from £47,126.48 to around £25,000 currently.
Though investigation is still ongoing to ascertain the Bitcoin value of assets seized by the Metropolitan Police Force’s Economic crime command team, Intelligence report has it that there has been a transfer of criminal assets to Bitcoin. The anonymity feature of Bitcoin an attractive usage to criminals to perpetuate fraud has now been on the spotlight of recent.
According to a UK Constable, Detective Joe Ryan, “Criminals must hide the origin of ill-gotten money or else risk it being taken by law enforcement.”
The financial beam light on crypto had Deputy Police Commissioner, Graham McNulty adding that “Every single part of the Met is working to reduce violence on the streets of London as an absolute priority; this includes our financial investigators.
He goes on to add:
“There is an inherent link between money and violence. Cash remains king, but as technology and online platforms develop, some are moving to more sophisticated methods of laundering their profits. We have highly trained officers and specialist units working day and night to remain one step ahead.”
Fraudsters now see Bitcoin as a means to cover their tracks as they are aware crypto transactions are not readily traceable to a person as there is high anonymity from the senders to the receivers of the digital currency. The wallet addresses of all parties involved in the transaction are not known, making it difficult to track exact transactions.
Ayoola Faseyi, an Abuja based Journalist with interest in Technology and Politics. He is a versatile writer with articles in many renowned News Journals.
He is the Co-Founder of media brand, The Vent Republic.
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