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2,532 Bitcoins worth $29 million seized by the Rotterdam District Court have been convicted and found guilty of a couple of money laundering charges on dark web platforms. The couple in question is a man with his wife who hails from the city of Hilversum located in North Holland. Based on their conviction of serious criminal charges, they have been awarded a sentence of 2 years and two and a half years to the man and his wife respectively.
It was the Dutch Public Prosection that has successfully put the couple under prosecution for a crypto crime. They had laundered more than €16 million ($18.9 million) over the course of two and a half years. They have even confirmed that the source of the huge bitcoin sum came from an illegal dark web transaction net.
Source: Twitter
With the court case, the finer details of the transactions were also publicized. The statement says that there were two different sums of BTC, one was 1488 BTC and the other was 1044 BTC. These were apparently seized from the suspects along with €250,000 ($295,256) in cash. Apart from this, the suspects who were expelled to serve their time were also fined €45,000 ($53,137). They were coerced to forfeit €138,000 ($162,955) and $40,000 also in the process.
The court further added that the couple purchased Bitcoin in order to exchange large Euro sums in cash from private individuals and companies. The transactions were done using anonymous methods and stand undisclosed to Dutch authorities. They were executed using ways and methods so that the customer identity remains anonymous.
The court also went on to highlight the singular nature of the transactions. Most of the time, they took at a fast-food restaurant in a big metropolitan city without any need for KYC norms verification. This is how criminals from the dark web take advantage and look for people who can help them swap their bitcoins for fiat without going through any checks or procedures and even though the due diligence of crypto exchanges wherein such a transaction could be impossible.
The court has implied that the acquired bitcoin had symbols of dark web activity and dark web activity is usually very difficult to trade. But the dark web has become a big central focal point of all criminal activities including child pornography, murder-for-hire. Bitcoin use on the dark web has triggered further criminal activity and the benefit of not being traced has attracted a lot of such criminals to conduct their crime and get their hands on unaccounted fiat money.
An excerpt from the court paper which was released to the public read:
“Traders did not ask customers for identity papers, while large amounts were often exchanged. The suspects, a man, and his wife came into contact with customers through advertisements on the Internet and a marketplace on the dark web. Much of the bitcoins traded bore traces of the dark web. The court has established that the suspects laundered more than 16 million euros in two and a half years.”