Bitcoin Forum

In a leaked document, the FINCEN files, revealed that banks are allowing thousands upon thousands of suspicious activities are being allowed by this banks, amounting to $ Trillions worth moving across the globe in the last ten years.

So the next time we hear reports that bitcoin or any other crypto is being the 'choice' of criminals, now, think again!.


In summary:

• HSBC allowed fraudsters to move millions of dollars of stolen money around the world, even after it learned from US investigators the scheme was a scam.
• JP Morgan allowed a company to move more than $1bn through a London account without knowing who owned it. The bank later discovered the company might be owned by a mobster on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list.
• Evidence that one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest associates used Barclays bank in London to avoid sanctions which were meant to stop him using financial services in the West. Some of the cash was used to buy works of art.
• The husband of a woman who has donated £1.7m to the UK's governing Conservative Party's was secretly funded by a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Putin.
• The UK is called a "higher risk jurisdiction" and compared to Cyprus, by the intelligence division of FinCEN. That's because of the number of UK registered companies that appear in the SARs. Over 3,000 UK companies are named in the FinCEN files - more than any other country.
• The United Arab Emirates' central bank failed to act on warnings about a local firm which was helping Iran evade sanctions.
• Deutsche Bank moved money launderers' dirty money for organised crime, terrorists and drug traffickers
• Standard Chartered moved cash for Arab Bank for more than a decade after clients' accounts at the Jordanian bank had been used in funding terrorism.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-54226107

At least now we have something to counter those expressing their thoughts about Bitcoin and the whole cryptocurrencies as use by
criminals and not to be trusted?

it has been many years that this is the sentiments thrown to crypto thats why this cannot be a good investments or used because
 of this arguments.

But now that this proof of Banks are the one whose the true criminal assistant for their transferring i guess this is the time for us to Heads up and be
 proud of what market are we having.

Thanks for this Mate,nice Thread.

In other news.. water is wet.


There has been countless of other cases of banks committing fraud in the past. But what do they get as a penalty? A slap in the wrist.

"Leaked"  ;D

It has been proven long before the first Bitcoin block was mined that money launderers have been using banks and other financial services to move their money for years. They can't carry all those cold cash and fly them from one country to another. Even if they can, they probably won't take that risk.

People are just ignorant and gullible to whatever the media feeds them about bitcoin.

Bitcoin is a small fish compared to all the illegal activities that take place through the banking system, and there is no doubt that these are amounts measured in trillions of dollars or euros. For those who have not heard of the biggest financial scandal in Europe (some say in the world), let them read how Danske Bank laundered around €200 billion through its bank branch in Estonia - and this is an amount that is greater than the total value of all mined BTCs at this time.

I believe that all banks have that part of their business that they hide from the public - dirty money is also attractive to them as long as they make a profit from it. After all, in the event that someone discovers them, they pay a fine and continue to operate as if nothing had happened.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danske_Bank_money_laundering_scandal

Those who don't do any kind of research and simply listen to what banks and authorities have to say about Bitcoin illegal activity are just ignorant. Doesn't take too long to find out and understand that there are way larger issues surrounding us than some hackers looking for website exploits to scam and people trying to launder money through XMR. The argument about BTC or other cryptos being used in "way too much criminal activity" falls short very quickly, but you obviously cannot share your own opinion when the MSM is airing manipulative news.

We away had something to counter, just that those who weren't convince or informed are now at advantage since there's a reference to fall back to when such debate araises. It's a well known fact that thousands of millions are been moved yearly by the scammers and corrupt politicians way before bitcoin was developed and still ongoing yet nothing is been done about it since the practice favour the banks and elite among us.

The only reason bitcoin has been at the front of the attacks is that, they (the elites) know they can't control who does these transactions probably to get a compensation. We acting as if this is some big news that we don't know about is quite funny. Before the new digital means of payment were introduced, where did we think the crime lords, terrorists get their funding through? Obviously it has to be the banks.

This news isn't that much of a win though as the attack won't stop even though this type of news are published daily, the fact is the government are afraid they'll lose it all when we (the citizens) realized the power, having control over our finances has and with Bitcoin that's made possible, so they'll keep fighting until there's nothing else they can do expect to adopt it, just as my country is heading. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5275844.0)

the worst problem is not just the fact that banks are allowing so much criminal activity happen right under their nose, no. the worst part is that these banks are also doing a lot of criminal shit themselves and they have been getting away with it scot free.
the only reason why they have ever attacked bitcoin was to hide their own dirty laundry by redirecting the public attention away from their own shadiness.

It's one of the reason I am here and believe in Bitcoin. I was just simply so sick of the corrupt so called financial institutions that pretend to be good in the eyes of the public. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are just an easier target and sacrificial lambs used to cover tracks of way much bigger money laundering and suspicious schemes.

Bitcoin is just 10 years old but before bitcoin even came to exist, where do you think all the drug money, terrorism, human trafficking and Laundered money passed through? It's those very financial institutions  ;D
So when some less informed person comes telling me that bitcoin is used by criminals to hide their money. I just laugh at them.

Yes, I just read it today morning! This Fincen drama is going to create a lot of issues in coming days and weeks for some of the biggies of world politics. But anyway, that's not the main focus of the thread.

Here you are essentially comparing a thousand years old system with an 11 years old system. So the comparion doesn't make much sense! The main currency system in the world is completely fiat based so it's no wonder that fiat will be used for all major money laundering cases. If you compare between the volume of fraud happening with crypto against fiat related frauds, obviously the crypto numbers will be minuscule. But that doesn't provide a clean-chit to cryptos or the license to commit fraud!

Let me share how this banking shit works in our country.
There are few people who have taken loan from some of our banks to invest in some other countries (I have not read about the processing in detail and for which country to invest). The loan was approved and later the borrower defaulted the loan. When further investigation has been taken place, it found that a few people from the bank was involved in approving the insecure loan and all of them including the borrower were the beneficiaries of the loan. Guess what? They are money launderer but they have done it through the help of the bank. Both fiat money and BTC has nothing to do with anything criminal but it's us how we use it.

The definition of illegal activities is often open and it is difficult to find an international standard for it, because many illegal activities in a country are legal in other countries and because some countries impose penalties on other countries, evading these sanctions in those countries is not considered a crime.
Cryptocurrencies (the real one) are open-source, and everyone can track currencies, so if a way is found to break the tracking of currencies and stop mixing services, the currencies will be more transparent compared to banking systems.

There's really a lot of shady transactions happening with bank transfers. What's wrong with the reports about bitcoin is that they're hyping and making it that all of the illegal transactions are only happening with bitcoin.

But they never compare it when they report about those illegal transactions with the shady deals happened and transfers inside and allowed by the banks.

The problem about banks getting slammed down because of illegal activities is that they have a very powerful connection to the people in power. The profit is too big for this banks to let that malicious oppurtunity go and the people backing these banks is profiting too. The sad reality is that most economy has a very close tie with banks which makes it more problematic in the first place. Kind of like a parasitic yet symbiotic relationship.

There's no doubt that banks or fiats are still the number one thing that is being used for fraudulent activities. From the fact that banks are making a big profit because of this and allowing such activities, criminals tend to cling to this.

But we still can't deny that the use of cryptocurrencies are increasing when it comes to illegal things.

I've said this time & time again. Banks have been pulling this shit for years, and every time a new revelation comes out everyone acts surprised.

At least with regards to Bitcoin, the exploitation for potentially illegal means is well documented, and the bitcoin community as a whole fundamentally understands that it's a by-product of a generally free market. It's not hidden, dismissed, or otherwise ignored.

There is a thread here just recently that mentioned monero, according to media, is also being a favorite crypto safehaven of criminals because of it's privacy.
On the part of the banks who allowed, allows and will allow any such suspicious activity should be penalized and punished.
Tighten the law restricting these activities so it will not be easy for those criminals to do it.

Of course, before fiat and the bank is the first option of the criminals. But right now, their second option is using crypto-currency. I will not be surprised if the bank accepts fraudulent activities. Banks tend to take this kind of action to accumulate more profit.

Compared to the billions of dollars that banks have helped criminals move, bitcoin looks cleaner. For years banks abetting criminals, the numbers published above are only superficial, so how much money have they helped criminals transfer and launder before?
They blamed Bitcoin and went against Crypto, but they did even worse. Technology cannot be bribed, but humans do.

The world is also largely governed through banks, and they are of course influenced by the most powerful countries in the world. The first option of imposing some rules is always diplomatic, then it goes economically through borrowing money and creating financial dependence, and finally the last option is war.

Banks greatly influence a country's economic development by paying different interest rates for private and business users - so in some EU countries, for example, the interest rate is 1% or even lower for a business user - and in some other EU member states the interest rate is 8% or higher. Not only are banks corrupt to the core, but they are also used as instruments to destroy competition.

I hope people understand that scams and fraudulent activities are everywhere. Bitcoin conveniently has this facade of "anonymous" feature that is "conveniently" works for criminal activities. I think that's why crypto is almost always being associated with that by the people who don't know anything about it.

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There are many corrupt people who do whatever it takes to get more money. And you know that Fiat has been used way longer (because of its existence) compared to crypto, right?

The crypto gives criminals a chance to use cryptocurrency to transfer their money without anyone knows. But if they want to convert the crypto, they need to pass the bank security, which I think they will easily pass that because they have an inside person at the banks to allow them to transfer the money. If the officials want to open this case, there will be many popular people involved in that crime, and I don't think that they will not do something to protect their popularity.

Well, maybe every criminal has a different level as well and for top-level criminals, at least they will be able to easily control the entry and exit of money in the bank they use, so that their confidentiality may be guaranteed because they have paid high fees to carry out such activities in the related bank. But for low-level criminals who would easily be tracked using Bitcoin as a ransom, of course this kind of judgment will flourish in society. These facts or it can be said that a corrupt institution will continue to protect its secrets until no public has suspicion of it.

Exactly, I think till now fiat is much use in large amounts than crypto to commit any fraudulent activities, not very many people are aware of crypto unlike fiat that is universally accepted and used, so I don't completely agree with the op on this.

I think it so. It is not important that which medium are used for moving money. The important thing is that peoples are corrupted. Many people say that Bitcoin is used to buy illegal things like arms. Because BTC is hide buyers and seller’s information. But if the terrorist wants to pay by fiat money, it is not a bis issue for them. If terrorists are use bitcoin for illegal work, we cannot blame BTC for it.

People are already aware and veteran about many Fiat fraudulent schemes and mostly higher people are behind it. Since the beginning fraudulent are rampant in fiat money unlike in crypto which is something new and not easy to know that's why people in crypto space still not aware about the operation of many scammers online.

We always had that argument at our disposal but what happens is the media which is controlled by the governments as they depend on it for their survival will spread those news about bitcoin to weaken its public perception so people decide out of their own will to stay away from it, it was a tactic to delay the mass adoption of bitcoin as they could figure out a way to destroy it but now they are finding out this is impossible and it has become one of their main tactics in their war against cryptocurrencies.

Many people do not do research properly, and listen to the government and banks say that Bitcoin is widely used by criminals
for illegal activities. In fact, there are many cases of money laundering done by banks, and the number is more than the amount
that happened to Bitcoin. Even sadder the Bank is making bad news regarding the fraud taking place using Bitcoin, to cover up
the fact that there is more fraud using fiat through banks. That's why I trust Bitcoin more than banks.

Offshores and etc blabla things are used to launder money and banks are a part of it, it looks like legitimate way to launder money. Curious, yeah? Bitcoin is mostly considered as a currency used by criminals because of it's mostly anonymous and cryptographic nature. This gives them a reason to state that but at the same time it's truth at some point. The difference is that banks are used by elite launderers while cryptos are sometimes used by average Joes.

And sandly, UK is one of the easiest place to launch scam/ponzi scheme with fiat but no, still bitcoin is blamed instead of peoples' brains.

Illegal activities such as money laundering and fraud are most likely prevalent to come over fiat rather than crypto for those law abiders are having an easy access and already familiar on how they can get out after doing such crimes. The problem is that people do not get it that criminal activities are more into fiat and not on Bitcoin and any other crypto for they find it much more complicated doing their activities into it. People's mindset that because crypto is providing a seamless fast transaction in any part of the world is more illegal activities might get tolerated and make use of the advantage that crypto can provide.


This became also an issue that banks are more likely giving people a bad impression about Bitcoin blaming about criminalities when at the first place those activities takes place on the bank itself. They cannot admit that such activities exist mostly on their part and not on crypto.

It seems this time they will stop throwing bad words to the Bitcoin and covering fiat for the fraud activities which is through the bank.

However, those statements are very fishy. Who would believe that these have been executed by mistake? If you've seen how JP Morgan as a company check frauds and laundering, it is highly impossible that this $1billion would go through without any verification. That is a very lame excuse. For me, Banks are involved with these and they are also the ones who have the ability to clean the money. A win-win situation for both groups, right?

Its pretty obvious that crypto is not the preferred medium to channel illegal funds by these fraudsters since its easier to do it with the help of banks catering to dummy companies that will help make it look like legitimate - so I guess there is a little need for mixers, privacy coins or multiple accounts across exchanges especially if those funds come in huge amounts. :)

It's long gone the idea that crypto is use to create funds especially when many is able to earn from it thru trading and investing, the KYC in crypto somehow helps in changing this thought of many that crypto is for illegal transactions as it not. Fraud in banks or fiat is still a problem hard to solve nowadays as many official or employee might he involve inside that can help the fraudster or may plan how they will manipulate and control the account without noticing.

Nothing new here tbh, hell I think most people actually acknowledge this in the bottom of their hearts as a pretty normal occurrence. The only thing I don't really understand is their bias upon Bitcoin, or crypto in general, that whenever they get scammed, someone gets scammed, money laundering happens, they bloody blame Bitcoin like excuse me? They're clearly putting Crypto in a too high of a pedestal, when clearly those who use them are the bad ones. And if compared to Fiat/Banks? Hell, banks have done more than enough criminal activity involved to actually be imprisoned for a few decades, but they aren't' in one now are they.

Nah, unfortunately. This isn't the first time an incident like this has been exposed, and it won't be the last considering the slap on the wrist penalties on the parties involved. Give it a week and they'll act high and mighty again as people forget.

The fact of the matter is, banks do stop money laundering for majority of the population, but they've historically let big fish through. Whenever they talk about stopping money laundering, they're referring to us common folk, not the criminal empires they're in bed with.

More of those activities are done behind cover whereas they always tarnished the image of cryptos by attaching it use to money laundering whereas the main culprits are fiat launderers who perpetuate those fraudulent activities undercover.
The article had listed out massive criminal activities of the banks its sad that this is not getting enough media attention its only when cryptocurrencies is involved then a widespread negative campaign of calumny will triggered to call the attention of people the bad and criminal use of cyptos.

A lot of people are going to say sh*t about Bitcoin, but banks are doing the worst by covering up a lot of suspicious activities, and the truth is that banks have more privacy than Bitcoin. BTC is open to everyone it runs on the Blockchain which can be seen by everyone, there are no secrets at all.

Before, it has been banks that these criminals were making use of and some of them still make use of it, and trust me, banks are never going to say anything about it, it will always be a secret for them and you wouldn’t know about that. I always find it funny when people act like Bitcoin is the only place corruption started.

Those who give Bitcoin a bad name will expectedly act like they don't see this article. For me, I don't let negative news on Bitcoin twitch my ears. I instantly conclude that such is a FUD. Criminal activities and money laundry have been in existence decades before Bitcoin (and cryptocurrency industry) came into existence. So, I don't see why these detractors are hell bent on tagging Bitcoin alone in it. The banks are the chief culprits.

🤔 ... Like the tyres of moving vehicles touching the ground.

Agree on it, people will have a bad perspective on bitcoin because they are using it in scams and pyramiding scheme. Well, there's no clean activity happening in the finance, banks are being used in many criminal activities and yeah, we don't know it. We should implement seminars or free orientation about cryptocurrency so they will be aware of its potential.

Most people are too lazy to look for the truth themselves and the governments know this so they say all of those things so people lose confidence in bitcoin and its long term prospects thinking they are doing the right thing with their money not realizing that by keeping their money in fiat currencies they are basically betting that the current economic system will continue indefinitely, when history shows that from time to time there are changes in the economy so profound that those holding fiat currencies get ruined because of it.

Because the government considers Bitcoin a threat to fiat, so we often read articles or see news that the government says  Bitcoin is widely
used by criminals for money laundering. This is what governments often do to make Bitcoin look bad. The government gave the statement
to the media, usually without evidence. Even though the fact is that the government is hiding the truth, that fiat criminals used more for
money laundering. Therefore, my advice is not to immediately believe the news we get, always do your research before you think the news is valid.

I don't really think that it is just Fiat and crypto that are being used to move money by criminals.
How about gold and other valuable objects that is also being shipped without a proper papers?
We are too focus on Fiat and crypto we often forget that the criminals are also using other objects to launder money.

Indeed. Valuable objects such as old coins, antiques, precious metals, etc. are also being used to launder money by criminals, not only fiat currency and cryptocurrency. I think the reason why governments are too focus on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies because they are also known for money laundering that other countries have started to banned bitcoin to avoid this kind of illegal activities. So that makes bitcoin ruins it's reputation due to this kind of illegal scheme.

Criminals use both cash and Bitcoin for money laundering. Nobody accuses banks of being engaged in illegal transactions, but “BitMEX made itself available as a vehicle for money laundering and sanctions violations”. And why isn't crypto yet adopted? It's a rhetorical question.

Not many realize that banks with all their practices such as fractional reserve banking, interest rate games and also printing money are the root of today's economic problems. When a bank cannot secure its liquidity, customers are worried about losing their money, but the strange thing is that the government has taken a bailout policy to save the bank.

The bank has the authority to circulate customer funds when the bank performs miscalculations and mismanagement that leads to losses. They have the power to used public money to save the corporation and this can happen due to the grip of the oligarchs and plutocrats who steer the government for the benefit of their groups, and they drive through banks.

Almost every country is economy is connected with the banks operating within it. Every country will also have its reserve Bank which is the primary financing platform from which the distribution of funds takes place. If I'm not wrong, these policies are made by the reserve authorities along with the government. So, always the policies will be in favour of the banking sector than the common public.

I don't think gold will be frequently used considering the size and weight, maybe pressure stone and diamond could be another good choice, fiat and and crypto are the most used, especially fiat, we can't not deny that fact, fiat has been in existence for so long now and in all this period fiat has been mostly used for all sort of criminal activities,
But now it seems criminals have shifted their attention to using crypto for fraudulent activities, and the number of this criminal activities keeps  increasing but still not compare to fiat.

It's because if a criminal used fiat banks to move the money, they will not be focused on the currency because it's kind of normal that there are scams and illegal activities in fiat. However, if a criminal used btc to move their money, then the focus will be on btc cause they knew they can't track the money. So the first thing they will think is that maybe bitcoin is a scam and for illegal activities only, it's kind of frustrating on the part of bitcoin cause they focus on the currency and the blame the currency. But they won't do the same in fiat currency.

Since bitcoin is PtP it is actually super ideal for the criminals who want to stay anonymous. These criminals are usually doing the trades on darknet and mic the coins after the get the payment. However, sine bitcoin is too transparent for them and anyone can easily track the transaction using the block explorers, they mostly prefer to use monero because the transactions can not be tracked using the explorers.
However, some people are thinking this can be bad for bitcoin reputation. But, they have not idea that the physical money is used much more than anything else on dirty deals.

Crimes in the world of finance have been and will continue to be committed at any time and in any currency. In this case, banks play one of the main roles. At the same time, the criminal community of bankers is very experienced and organized. They know how to hide the traces of their crimes. Although the cryptocurrency is considered more anonymous, its transactions are visible to everyone. With a strong desire and good opportunities, the owners of the cryptocurrency are often identified. Therefore, the existing financial system is much more criminal than cryptocurrency.

This is the reason why cryptocurrency is still being studied by the government because it is truly anonymous, since I found out about cryptocurrency I immediately thought that cryptocurrency would be used for money laundering
I think this should be duly resolved by the developers of better blockchains

To be honest banks are ready to lick the ass of huge money holder on their bank account no matter what is the source of money for them. But banks and governments are going to blame the crypto currencies for anonymity even if they help the fraudsters to move money across the globe, because they don't care about the money is used for crimes all they want is transactions on their bank and government wants that revenue from their banks as well.

Makes me utter sick to think that something I love so much as Bitcoin is being used for illicit acts.
Its a common known fact and something we all have to accept.

True, but this is nothing more but a confidence game, governments secure the funds of the clients of a bank and everyone thinks they have the government to back them up, however for what I know the governments can only cover about 5% to 10% of all the funds on the banks, which means that if there is a run on the banks that surpasses those numbers then governments will be unable to cover the banks and their malpractices, and for what I can see it seems we are slowly approaching the day something like this will happen.