- The CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange company Bitzlato has been arrested
- Spanish National Police and Europol worked together to arrest the suspect
- Bitzlato handled nearly $2 billion in criminality-related payments between 2019 and 2021
Madrid, Spain – the CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange company Bitzlato has been arrested by Spanish police on charges of money laundering and fraud. The arrest was the result of a collaborative operation by the Spanish National Police and Europol, and it is part of a broader crackdown on criminal activity in the bitcoin industry.
According to sources, the CEO and a number of other Bitzlato employees are accused of involvement in a criminal network that used the platform to launder millions of euros gained through illegal operations. The arrest is viewed as a key milestone in the fight against escalating criminal behavior in the crypto realm.
Researchers found that nearly half of the $2 billion in payments transferred on the platform between 2019 and 2021 originated from criminality, such as the selling of illicit goods and services on the dark web and cyber extortion through ransomware hacks.
The Bitzlato platform has been shut down, and police are conducting an investigation to discover the extent of the alleged illicit activity.
The broader crypto community is closely observing the arrest of the Bitzlato CEO and the crackdown on criminal activity within the cryptocurrency business as governments worldwide explore regulating the expanding sector.
In other news, markets surge as a result of the FOMC’s move to bolster confidence. As reported by the Federal Reserve, the FOMC raised the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points, as expected, to a target range of 4.5 percent to 4.7 percent. This decreases from the 50-basis-point increase in December and the four preceding 75-basis-point increases.
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