One of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Bitfinex has been accused of being involved in money laundering scheme. The exchange conducted an internal investigation and concluded the allegations to be “untrue and unfounded”.
Bitfinex conducts the internal investigation to put the accusations at rest
A few days back, the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex was involved in a controversy where the Polish prosecutors have seized about €400 million from two accounts, one of which was allegedly linked to the exchange.
Now, Bitfinex has come forward and denied the allegation of being involved in the money laundering. The crypto exchange has claimed to conduct an internal investigation of its international organization. The investigation was run to determine if the exchange had been connected to any of the two accused companies of defrauding and laundering funds. Bitfinex apparently found no such connection and stated that:
“Based on all available evidence and information, [it] has concluded that these allegations are untrue and unfounded.”
The exchange further declared that:
“Among the claims under dispute, Bitfinex has not been party to any official investigation launched in any jurisdiction globally on the basis of the allegations reported in the Polish media. This signals that the relevant authorities have found no reason to act upon the claims made against the Bitfinex platform.”
However, the legal restrictions so imposed didn’t bring any issues to the customers of exchange as they were still able to access their funds and accounts. A company spokesperson said:
“Bitfinex believes that these allegations are untrue and Bitfinex customers and operations are unaffected by false rumours.”
Also, read: Bitfinex Lists 12 New ERC20 Tokens, Altcoin Market Signals Recovery
Before money laundering scam link, Bitfinex was subpoenaed by the US
It all started when the Polish media suspected that these confiscated funds were involved in money laundering scheme and were used for international fraud. The criminals were apparently converting their laundered fiat into cryptos through the exchanges and accounts associated with it.
Reportedly, a Bitfinex user had been interrogated regarding these funds by the Polish police weeks before the seizure.
The two companies involved in the scam are also accused of defrauding Belgium government of €400,000 amount and working with a large cryptocurrency exchange, but the name of the exchange hasn’t been revealed by the authorities. The local and the international media connected Bitfinex to the whole ordeal.
Currently, no charges have been filed by the Polish authorities but given the international nature of the crimes, they are coordinating with the international law enforcement agencies.
Last year in December, Bitfinex and its associated company Tether were subpoenaed by the US regulators for unknown reasons. In order to protect its reputation, the exchange took legal action but there were no further developments on the case.
With the increase in the crypto scams and frauds, regulatory authorities are getting tough and taking stricter steps towards such cases. Do you think stringent regulations are the way to stop these fraud schemes?
