New York court reveals details of shadow banking case mentioning Bitfinex

The fraud-accused former owner of the Minnesota Vikings, Reginald Fowler, has been linked to $850 million, to which Bitfinex had lost access. This is stated in documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Investigators say the entrepreneur organized a shadow banking network for cryptocurrency exchanges. To conduct financial operations, he used accounts at 56 financial institutions around the world, including Citibank, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and others.

According to the documents, about $345 million is held in his accounts or in the accounts of companies linked to him. To launder the illicit activity, Fowler organized a real estate investment scheme.

The court document mentions Crypto Capital’s Panama processing director Oz Yosef and his sister Raviv Yosef. Both are at large, Decrypt reports. Fowler was released on $5 million bail pending a January 2021 trial.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York charged Oz Yosef with bank fraud in October 2019. In the same month, in Poland, Crypto Capital’s president Ivan Manuel Molina Li was arrested. He was charged with involvement in a Colombian drug cartel and money laundering.

The shadow banking scheme was uncovered in May last year. Subsequently, reports indicated Fowler was prepared to plead guilty to part of the charges, but ultimately rejected a plea deal with prosecutors.

Earlier, Bitfinex said it could not access the $850 million in Crypto Capital accounts in Poland, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and the United States. As a result, the company borrowed funds from affiliated Tether, after which the exchange conducted a $1 billion token sale. This triggered a legal dispute with the New York Attorney General, though Bitfinex maintains it is a victim of fraud.

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