Bitcoin used by Chinese illegal migrants to launder revenue from counterfeit goods trading

A Russian businessman connected with initial coin offerings as well as anonymous Russian Telegram channels dedicated to revelations about bank fraud schemes suggest that illegal Chinese immigrants on several markets in Moscow convert all their revenue to bitcoins.

Mikhail Zhukhovitskiy, entrepreneur familiar with the topic, suspects that strange accounts on LocalBitcoin exchange belong to those migrants who sometimes even don’t have sensible identification papers. These accounts only buy Bitcoin and never sell it.

The decision of people behind these criminal schemes is easily explained by the fact that the Russian police is aware of typical banking money laundering acts, while with Bitcoin they currently do not possess skills or tools similar to MemPool scan invented in America which would have helped them to apprehend leaders of this shadow business.

Both Zhukhovitskiy and anonymous Telegram channels name the market in Lyublino on the outskirts of Moscow and Sadovod (also close to Moscow) as main hubs where cryptocurrency is used as a means of money laundering.

Image courtesy of RIA NOVOSTI