Share this article
BTC
$84,642.24
-
0.72%ETH
$1,629.51
-
1.41%USDT
$0.9998
+
0.00%XRP
$2.1718
+
0.57%BNB
$586.35
-
1.79%SOL
$131.83
+
0.50%USDC
$0.9999
-
0.00%DOGE
$0.1673
-
0.40%TRX
$0.2539
+
2.97%ADA
$0.6591
+
0.17%LEO
$9.3938
+
0.84%LINK
$13.07
-
1.05%AVAX
$20.37
-
0.48%XLM
$0.2481
+
1.42%SUI
$2.3091
-
1.34%SHIB
$0.0₄1236
-
2.18%TON
$2.9384
-
2.79%HBAR
$0.1700
-
1.98%BCH
$345.71
-
1.75%LTC
$79.78
+
0.78%Sign Up
- Back to menuPrices
- Back to menuResearch
- Back to menuConsensus
- Back to menu
- Back to menu
- Back to menu
- Back to menuWebinars & Events
Electrum Bitcoin Wallet Scam Suspect Is Arrested by Dutch Police
The 39-year-old is suspected of laundering tens of millions of euros obtained from malicious software using decentralized exchange Bisq and privacy coin monero, police say.
A 39-year-old man was arrested last week in the Netherlands on suspicion of laundering funds stolen using malicious software that purported to be linked to crypto wallet service Electrum.
The unidentified man was held in Veenendaal, about 35 miles southeast of Amsterdam, and was released on Sept. 8. He remains a suspect and his crypto has been seized, Dutch cyber police said in a Tuesday statement.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
“Cryptocurrency, like ordinary money, is vulnerable to all kinds of crime,” the police said. “The anonymous and cross-border nature of cryptocurrency affords opportunities for criminals.”
According to the police, the suspect had laundered tens of millions of euros (tens of millions of U.S. dollars) and had sought to cover his tracks using privacy coin monero (XMR) and decentralized exchange Bisq. He was identified through bitcoin (BTC) transactions.
In a bid to curb money laundering, the European Union recently passed new measures to make it harder to stay anonymous when using crypto. Jurisdictions such as the U.K. and France are also seeking to make it easier for police to seize crypto assets during investigations.
Read more: Someone Just Lost $16M in Bitcoin by Using a Malicious Install of the Electrum Wallet
Jack Schickler
Jack Schickler was a CoinDesk reporter focused on crypto regulations, based in Brussels, Belgium. He previously wrote about financial regulation for news site MLex, before which he was a speechwriter and policy analyst at the European Commission and the U.K. Treasury. He doesn’t own any crypto.
