Money laundering

Criminals In Latin America Launder Money With Cryptocurrency, Report Says

Compiled by the cyber intelligence company IntSights, the report went in-depth on Latin America’s involvement with illegal financial activities. More specifically, it outlined numerous sophisticated organized crime groups acting in the region. Yet, enterprise security teams are neglecting the issue. Therefore, illicit financial transactions in LATAM are continuously increasing.

In fact, the document noted that Latin American countries top the list of the world’s worst money laundering nations. It referred to a new operational method used by criminals – cryptocurrencies:

“Threat finance is evolving in Latin America as organized crime groups turn to cryptocurrency to launder large amounts of money and dive into the dark web to find hackers to hire.”

According to the first-ever blockchain forensics team, CipherTrace, criminals use several main tools for money laundering with cryptocurrencies. Those include unregulated exchanges that don’t require extensive know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) policies and “mixers.”

Interestingly enough, a former Microsoft employee was recently found guilty for stealing over $10 million and laundering it with such mixers.