Dutch traders sentenced to prison for laundering €16 million in Bitcoin

A couple from Hilversum, Netherlands, were sentenced to prison on charges of money laundering through cryptocurrency. According to NL Times, a local publication.

According to the prosecution, the defendants bought cryptocurrency from private individuals and companies without registering their activities.

Meetings with clients took place in public places, with sellers not identified. Over two and a half years, the couple laundered more than €16 million.

“Most of the exchanged bitcoins are linked to the darknet,” the prosecution said.

Investigators confiscated from the couple mobile phones, computer equipment, jewelry, expensive watches, a car, 2,532 BTC (roughly $33.5 million) and €250,000 in cash.

From the offices of the defendants’ companies, authorities seized €138,000 and $40,000.

A Rotterdam court sentenced the man to two years in prison and the woman to two-and-a-half years. Each company was fined €45,000.

Authorities first signalled a ban on anonymous buying and selling of Bitcoin in January 2019.

Later that year, the Ministry of Justice and Security proposed increasing the prison term for cryptocurrency fraud to six years.

In spring 2020, to comply with the EU’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, Dutch cryptocurrency firms were required to register with the central bank by 18 May. Those that failed to comply ceased operations.

Business leaders at the time argued that the requirement put them at a disadvantage relative to other financial sector players.

A number of services announced their departure from the country: the cryptocurrency derivatives platform Deribit, the micropayments service Bottle Pay, the mining pool Simplecoin, the gaming platform Bitcoin Chopcoin, and the Bittr service.

Follow ForkLog’s Telegram news: ForkLog Feed — the full news feed, ForkLog — the most important news and polls.