SWIFT Says Criminals Prefer Cash for Money Laundering, Not Cryptocurrency
A new report by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) says cryptocurrency is seldom used for money laundering activities compared to fiat or other traditional methods. Despite the perception that crypto assets are a preferred haven for illegally acquired funds, criminals prefer to launder proceeds through mules, front companies, or cash businesses as well as investing it into crime, it said.
“Identified cases of laundering through cryptocurrencies remain relatively small compared to the volumes of cash laundered through traditional methods,” SWIFT noted, in a report titled “Follow The Money”, published last week. The authors observed that privacy-centered digital assets like Monero or Zcash could in the future become attractive to criminals, saying: SWIFT explained that online-thieves might seek to use crypto as a means for obfuscating and laundering the funds stolen during a cyber-heist, before making various purchases in order to integrate the money “In this instance, cyber-criminals might launder the stolen funds at a bitcoin farm, before using financial platforms to load prepaid cards with bitcoin,” said the report.
