The cybercrime team of the Dutch police arrested a Dutch man last week. He is suspected of laundering money from a “rogue software update to the Electrum wallet,” police said in a statement. declaration.
laundering bitcoins with monero
In the night of 5 to 6 September, the police knocked on the door of a 39-year-old man from Veenendaal. The police tracked him down through a number of bitcoin (BTC) transactions. This BTC would come from a rogue software update of the Electrum wallet. According to the police, it concerns tens of millions of euros in crypto that the man laundered.
Criminals can steal crypto from users by having them install a fake version of a wallet. Users are then asked to enter their private key as part of the so-called installation process. Criminals can then use the private keys to empty the original wallet.
Tip: Make sure you always download the necessary software for a crypto wallet via the official channels of a platform such as Ledger. Double check the url of the website and always be extra careful when asked for your private key or seed phrase.
The 39-year-old man allegedly laundered the proceeds from this fake wallet by converting the stolen bitcoins into monero (XMR) via decentralized crypto exchange Bisq. Monero is a privacy crypto and makes it a lot more difficult for the police to follow traces.
The findings emerged when police noted that stolen bitcoins had ended up with the man. After this, the police decided to further investigate the activities of the Veenendaler.
Bitcoin wallets seized
The police raided the man’s house in the night and arrested the man. The house was further investigated after which the police seized several data carriers. The money laundering profits were also seized in the form of crypto, police said.
The man has since been released. He remains a suspect in the case. The cybercrime team of the Central Netherlands Police is done in collaboration with the East Netherlands cybercrime team.
The police report that it is increasingly investigating cases in which crypto plays a role. This is partly due to the fact that more and more people use crypto, and so do criminals.
Recently, the crypto news reported that the police in Almelo arrested three people as a result of a crypto scam. Bigger news, however, was the arrest of a developer of crypto mixer Tornado Cash in Amsterdam, which even led to protests at the time.