$500 million crypto money laundering: Backpage suspected of trafficking

The website platform called Backpage has been establishing channels of human trafficking and was largely involved in prostitution, the U.S. FBI and the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) both claim. The corresponding investigation has already been launched. A giant sum of $500 million is mentioned in the official papers on this matter, as reported by the press. Suspects have gained this money from prostitution ads.

Notably, the domain of the website has been confiscated as well, and at the press time, the site largely resembles the BTC-e platform after the arrest of Alexander Vinnik which has been followed by the end of the exchange (later reappeared as WEX).

The dark side of cryptocurrencies has reminded of itself once again in this new case. In older reports, a scientist from one of the American universities has come up with a new algorithm which scans mentions of Bitcoin wallets and matches them with other wallets and mobile phone numbers, effectively deanonymizing human traffickers. The transparent blockchain of Bitcoin helps the scanner considerably, and that is why some criminals now prefer more private cryptocurrencies. According to the Europol, DASH, Monero and ZCash are growing in popularity. The official indictment on Backpage does not specify which cryptocurrency has been used by suspects.