German authorities seize 47 crypto exchanges

The German government has shut down 47 cryptocurrency exchanges hosted in the country, accusing them of being used for criminal purposes.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office Frankfurt am Main – Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) seized the exchanges in a joint operation.

According to the authorities, the operators of the now-shut-down exchange services are accused of “deliberately concealing the origin of criminally obtained funds by deficient implementation of legal requirements to combat money laundering…”

In a statement published on Thursday (Sep, 19), the police office says the “services enabled barter transactions without going through a registration process and without checking proof of identity.”

They believe this was aimed at “quickly, easily and anonymously exchanging cryptocurrencies into other crypto or digital currencies in order to steal their origin.”

In August, Germany’s financial regulator seized almost 25 million euros ($28 million) in cash in a nationwide operation targeting cryptocurrency ATMs.

User and transaction data has since been extracted from the switched-down services which can be used in investigative approaches against cybercrime, but there is further suggestion that prosecution could be difficult.

“In order to counter cybercrime in a sustainable manner, personnel investigations, i.e. the identification and successful prosecution of criminals, are an important and effective approach.

“However, since cybercriminals often reside abroad and are tolerated or even protected by some countries, they often remain unreachable for German prosecution.”

Where this isn’t possible, the measures of the German law enforcement authorities are also focused on “weakening and smashing the infrastructure of cybercriminals.

“Through this infrastructure approach, the underground economy has been partially deprived of considerable financial resources in the recent past. In addition, IT systems and data were secured, which led to further investigative approaches.”

It was in 2023 when authorities confiscated the server infrastructure of what they described as being the “world’s highest-turnover crypto mixer in the darknet” and were able to secure the equivalent of around 90 million euros.

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