Bitcoin Forum

Recently 3 suspects were arrested by Israel police for laundering money internationally through crypto. This money was stolen from France. This is a major international money-laundry.

A criminal using bitcoin as a means of laundering money does not make it a Bitcoin crime. Your title is wrong and misleading.
Criminals have always had means to clean stolen money long before bitcoin was envisioned.

You did not include^[1] an article to the news.

[1] https://news.bitcoin.com/israel-arrests-3-in-crypto-scheme-to-launder-millions-stolen-from-france/

- Jay -

Why do you not included the link? This is what I saw online about the crime:

https://news.yahoo.com/israel-arrests-three-international-money-111311674.html

Bitcoin was not yet mentioned, only cryptocurrencies were mentioned three times (cryptocurrencies were mentioned two times and digital currencies was mentioned once:




Do not forget DeFi has the highest crime rate, not bitcoin, and we do not know how the crime was committed and the cryptocurrencies that were used.

Such kind of incidents are quite frequent nowadays. Also I don't foresee a reduction in this numbers of money laundering using cryptocurrency. The NFT market has given an entirely new route for such non sense. But can we blame the money itself for such things?

The answe is no! Money laundering has been happening since ages. Criminals will always keep on doing their thing but does that make the money dirty? Such crimes has nothing to do with bitcoin. It's just a acceptable medium of exchange. Take it that way!

This makes me wonder if crypto is easier to track than using fiat to move the funds around.

If they withdrew cash and transported it via car from France to Israel, they'd only really risk being found at the initial withdraw step (and if they can hide their identity well for that bit, they probably wouldn't be recognised the rest of the way) - the money could then be laundered by more tried and tested measures to ensure it looks like they acquired it a legit way.

Crypto used for FIAT money laundering has been going on since early 2010, but it's also been going with everything else, investing in stocks, business, gold, you name it. So the issue of laundering is not a crypto problem, it's a money problem in general, and whether we like it or not, BTC can't escape it nor it can stop it or regulate it. At least not that I am aware of.

   You only need to take a look at the graph of money loundered via cryptocurrency per year to see that there are lots of money loundering going on in the crypto space every year.

https://iili.io/gxGrfR.md.jpg

https://iili.io/gxEenf.md.jpg

 Blockchain Decentralization is making it more possible for those scammers to successful lounder money without being caught.

Where did you hear the news? You would have insert the link for easy access. like this what you have posted will be tagged as copy and post because the information is not yours but another person's own so you have to credit the effort of the person who suffered to write the article by just putting the link in the thread.

With or without btc their will always be a money theft, it's called international money laundering crime not because it was laundered through btc but it was because the money was stolen from a country and transferred to the order country.

We should not always picked the negative things which hackers and thief's use a development like btc for, but we should as well consider the positive things which it has helped us achieved.
Btc saved lots from Financial crisis, give them quick access to money and make things more easier than it has ever been.

This is not new. Typically, money launderers will all the means that they can just to launder money from here and there. Literally, it's the cryptocurrencies and various of them are being used to launder money. It's just bitcoin was always attacked with such news because it's the most common and popular crypto of all time. But when it comes to laundering money, you'll see the enormous number that these people do in terms of fiat, if that's how they're living, they know the ins and outs of it and they're just taking advantage of the feature that crypto has to offer. There really are pros and cons about crypto as a means of payment and transfer and these people chose the bad use of it.

We should also look at the numbers on how big fiat is, and I would say that it is the go to when criminals wanted to launder money and not crypto.

And we've heard criminals getting caught by the police because obviously everything in on the public blockchain. So I would say that this criminals are dumb to uses bitcoin or crypto because sooner or later they will be track and get caught.

People always tend to abuse and use technology or an innovation the way they think is best for them and unfortunately you cannot control and restrict people from finding these negative uses.

Prior to bitcoins and crypto, Money laundering has always existed and if there's an "after bitcoin" scenerio or a means better than crypto for laundering, it will become the option. It is just very unfortunate that these individuals chose crypto as their preferred means to launder currently. It doesn't mean that crypto or bitcoins is for money laundering.

So is every other money-laundering case that used fiat. Pretty sure we should be blaming the people involved that did the crime instead of anything else.

https://beincrypto.com/fiat-still-accounts-for-the-majority-of-financial-crimes-us-treasury-department-report/ (https://beincrypto.com/fiat-still-accounts-for-the-majority-of-financial-crimes-us-treasury-department-report/)
To quote

...attempt

They were caught!

This is a proof that laundering via a public ledger isn't always a good idea ;)

Every currency in the world and financial system is used to commit crimes. Why are we making a big deal out of it? It's said that it's difficult to find a dollar bill without a physical trace of narcotics on it. Are you going to stop using cash because of it? I sure won't.  

Not surprising! We do always see that it is really been given up some emphasis whenever Bitcoin or crypto would really get involved with these money laundering things or issues without even tending to look back that

fiat money had been used since from the beginning of time and it is really just ends up on bitcoin or crypto would really took the blame whenever someone get caught on using it.It is true that trying out to do illegal

on a public ledger would be always a good idea and this is one of the example of this one which it do really ends up on a disaster.

What is supposed to be the point of this post? Are you just sharing some news? Or are you implying that Bitcoin or cryptocurrency is the preferred tool for money laundering?

Just also recently, just the other month, Credit Suisse was also found guilty of money laundering. That crime took place within a banking system that is compliant with what's supposed to be tough AML measures.

Money laundering happens everywhere using all kinds of means. Money is being laundered in casinos. Money is laundered through real estate, through artworks, even through stocks, and others.

But the point is that Bitcoin dwarfs in comparison to how much money laundering happens in the fiat system.

Interesting. In this case they didn't use any mixer but rather moved the money to cryptocurrencies and exchanged them several times. No further details are given but it would be interesting to know if one of the coins used was Monero. I also don't see if they used a DEX or a CEX, it would be interesting to know.


It is a fantasy what you have written.

How could they withdraw millions from a French bank?

There is currently a €1k cash payment limit in France, so to withdraw millions from a bank they would have to have filled out a bunch of AML paperwork, and I don't think that would be done by someone who is trying to launder money.

In the unlikely event that they could have taken out those millions in bank bills, driving from France to Israel, they probably wouldn't have been stopped in EU territory, but if they had, they would have had a lot of explaining to do, otherwise they could have been preventively seized the money.

But at the EU border, they would have had to declare the money, otherwise it could have been seized, and, again, I don't think that declaring the money would be done by someone who is trying to launder it:

EU Cash Controls (https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/customs-4/prohibitions-and-restrictions/eu-cash-controls_en)

"As part of the EU’s efforts to tackle money laundering and the financing of terrorism, all travellers entering or leaving EU territory are already obliged to complete a cash declaration when carrying EUR 10 000 or more (or equivalent in other currencies, bonds, shares or travellers’ cheques). Customs authorities are empowered to check persons, their luggage and their means of transport. They are also empowered to detain undeclared cash."

I imagine you don't live in the EU or don't know how things are there.

Whenever the word cryptocurrency is used people start connecting it with btc usage and it's not true as they might have used some other coins also but even if they have laundered money through bitcoin does it become bad money? Fiat is used in many illicit activities so does it make bad money? Using weapons in wars imply that weapons are not good or the people whose intentions are bad should be blamed ? People need to understand that bitcoin is like any other mode of payment and we need to utilise it in effective manner.

This is the problem with some of these people, as soon as they see the word bitcoin, they rush to conclude it's all bitcoins fault whereas, in reality, bitcoin is only a victim too with this kind of crime. They are the same with the mainstream media that are hostile when it comes to cryptocurrency, they will put in the headline some bad title about bitcoins and when you read the full news bitcoin has really nothing to do with it.

But you actually can't blame the decentralized exchanges for scamming activities, because one of the reasons for Bitcoin was to keep us anonymously while transacting online, so if others have decided to use it for scam and bad activities, it doesn't mean the whole concept is bad. So the solution now will be for people to avoid any online activities that will lead to them been scam.e.g sites or telegram groups who promises that if you invest $100 to get $200 in 24hours

And it is very sad and obvious that scamming activities has the highest percentage rate on the chart from 2017 to 2020

So you are saying bitcoin is evil because they used bitcoin to launder money and commit crime and you want everyone to stop using bitcoin? Why don't you stop using fiat currency because most of the laundering is done through fiat currency. At least they got caught using crypto currencies. I bet it would have been even harder for them to trace the criminals if they used the standard (fiat) currency to launder and commit crimes.

So, just to be fair towards "Bitcoin" .....let's look at Banks!

"According to 2019 anti-money laundering statistics, 60.5% of the banks' fines were due to anti-money laundering regulations violations. Source : https://legaljobs.io/blog/money-laundering-statistics/

https://sanctionscanner.com/blog/the-five-biggest-money-laundering-scandals-317  <== 5 of the biggest money laundering scandals ever reported was linked to ===> Banks!

Money laundering needs "Money" or "Currency" .....what is Bitcoin and Crypto currencies.... well, it is a payment option and a currency in some countries. Criminals will use anything that has value.... to commit financial crimes.  ::)

    HSBC – Fined $1.9bn.
    Wachovia Bank – Fined $160m.
    Standard Chartered Bank – Fined $1.1bn.
    Danske Bank – Fined $1.4bn.
    Bank of Credit and Commerce International – Liquidated.
    Commerzbank – Fined $50m.
    Westpac Bank – Fined AU$1.3bn.
    Goldman Sachs – $600m in profits.

Stories like this simply show us cryptocurrency isn't the perfect tool for criminals to deal with, different from what the media tell us. Thieves are constantly getting caught when using crypto for their schemes. Maybe that is because crypto is trackable like everything in this virtual universe, different from paper money which doesn't let any traces on most cases and require deep and long investigations until authorities discover the scheme.

The more criminals use cryptocurrency for their businesses, the easier it's going to be for the police to do their job.

We must make the right words in this case because indeed if we look at the development of the existing case it is only a group of criminals who do money laundering through Crypto, especially bitcoin there, not a crime from bitcoin.
These are two different things because when they say bitcoin is a crime, the context here is bitcoin is evil but money laundering through Crypto, especially bitcoin, it can be said that bitcoin is an object used for their crimes, it doesn't mean bitcoin is a crime because bitcoin is only an object that is used with wrong by irresponsible people.

Does this case generalize that Bitcoin is the culprit? of course wrong
Bitcoin was not created for that and there is absolutely no compelling reason for Bitcoin to commit crimes. What if cocaine and drugs were proof that the dealer was caught? is the item to blame? Not

Bitcoin is just a medium by which it is used, and each medium depends on its use. Have you heard that Ukraine accepts Bitcoin donations for humanity?

So Bitcoin can be incarnated with various useful and detrimental functions, depending on the user.

I don't see anything special from the News, I think this will be a good news for people that are against cryptocurrency,  they will start saying that's why they are not in support of cryptocurrency, they will start making noise that cryptocurrency is used for illegal activities.
My question is can't stolen fiat currency be transferred internationally? Before bitcoin was created stolen money were been transferred internationally and uptill now stone fiat currency are been transferred internationally, but nobody is talking about that, I think they are just trying to tag cryptocurrency with illegal activities and trying to proof that fiat currency is pure.

Bitcoin is pseudonymous not anonymous, most of people who doesn't have enough understanding are have higher chance his identity will exposed and the investigator will know who's him.

Although it can be used for criminals, but that doesn't mean Bitcoin is a crime or the main factors of crime isn't? They're just using the Bitcoin advantages, that's all. Even fiat is centralized, but criminals are use it before Bitcoin exist.

You are absolutely right. If someone has used Bitcoin for money laundering, then the person who has done this is a criminal. Bitcoin is not a criminal. Bitcoin is used by the biggest companies in the world to transact more money. It is able to transact more money more securely. EitherThat's why the man was caught doing a safe transaction of a lot of money. Bitcoin was not the culprit for this but it was just a medium.

It could be, especially for the newbies and those that haven't been around very much. It's the same message the government preach to there unaware citizens and its not helping although, avenues like this on the forum opens the window to some corrections and new ideas.

There are several ways people launder money ranging from buying expensive items, funding company projects ad some foreign nations might even chose to use the dollar. This doesn't make it a dollar crime or a crime of which ever means that was used.

Money laundering is laundering and that is the crime, not the means. People just use which ever is the more Co.fortable with them.

I can pretty much only see the Ransomware, Scamming, Stolen and Darknet markets in there.  You would be surprised to know how much Fiat is actually received by illicit entities every year.  The figures are much, MUCH larger than what you see in Cryptocurrency.

Scams are pretty much everywhere.  And over 70% of the Cryptocurrency scams I have personally seen on the Internet have happened due to human stupidity.  I bet most of these billions are coming from these 'send me $2k I give you double back' kind of scams where they voluntarily send money with no common sense.  Also, is this even money laundering that you are showing?  I am pretty sure money laundering means concealing illicit funds into funds that are seemingly coming from clean activities.

-
Regards,
PrivacyG

as you say, cryptocurrencies are of great benefit in helping the police to effectively prevent crime, the more criminals use cryptocurrencies, the easier it is for the police to track down and catch them
it's the complete opposite of what the media is spreading that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies make criminals more sophisticated, more complex, this is one of the benefits that the government should consider for cryptocurrencies and early mass adoption of cryptocurrencies, lol :D :D

Discussing this will never end, because there will always be two sides, pros and cons. For the pros, bitcoin is a savings for the future and a secure to be used as  payment. As for the cons, they will always look for the weaknesses of BTC which are not often also not in accordance with the vision and mission of satoshi. Crime happens not only in this world using BTC.

I am happy that the law enforcement is doing their job and going after criminals. The story is very vague because "cryptocurrencies" could've been any coins, and also what they describe sounds like crypto mixers but could have been multiple investments in ICOs or whatever. If it were Bitcoin specifically, I think it would have been mentioned in the article. In any case, the usage of coins for illicit activities doesn't make the currency itself illegal or bad. That sort of argumentation is used unfairly, since it can actually be applied to any fiat, as well as beyond the financial realm (for example, people who make child porn use cameras, so let's ban those).

There is no longer any connection between bitcoin and money laundering than between the US Dollar and money laundering. Bastards and criminals use all forms of currency.

Blaming bitcoin for a math problem or a computer program for someone using that tool to break the law is like blaming a screwdriver for someone who stabbed someone with that screwdriver.
and the problem that the OP mentioned is only cryptocurrency, not bitcoin because most people only know cryptocurrency is bitcoin, especially newbies who don't read it well before judging it is bitcoin.

Bitcoin just becomes the medium, but it does not support anything that would say that using Bitcoin is a crime and is the cause of money laundering. Money laundering even happens outside crypto and I believe there are waaaay too many people doing that more rather than us, crypto user.
Even from scams, Bitcoin is just being used as the currency but it is not entirely the root of all these scams.

I think it is very unfair that while we are focusing so much on the smaller crimes, the largest and biggest ones get away with no consequences.  Let us be honest, there are so many papers that have been leaked only in the past five years proving there are a TON of politicians and wealthy people doing the laundering and illicit activity amounting to enormous sums of possibly trillions.  Yet we are focused on things like someone scamming someone else for $10k.  It is just as bad, of course, I do not think we should ignore the guy scamming for less.  But it is kind of insane how we give zero damns about a public figure just because they are well known and the main focus goes to things like 'hey, but Bitcoin has scams!  Let's ban it!'.

This thing blew up a few months ago.  The bank from Switzerland that got documents leaked a few months ago.  Everyone acted so surprised that so many politicians and public figures are hiding wealth when this was a well known fact for so many years!  How come it was a known fact for me but authorities act surprised?  Am I so special to know tips and tricks of the Wealthy?

As much as I do not want this to sound like a conspiracy, this idea of governments, mainstream media or particular public figures having a specific agenda to make Bitcoin sound like a criminal's choice is getting a bolder and bolder confirmation in my head every time things like this happens.  Crime is everywhere.  Crime exists even outside Fiat and Cryptocurrencies.  What this 'Bitcoin is bad' thing is, is exactly a targeted attack.

-
Regards,
PrivacyG

the difference being that in fiat. they have had practice of decades to shelter themselves

setting up dummy companies where by the "company" takes the responsibility. not the human running the company.
so because you cant put a business in prison. all they can do is put a fine on the company. and due to certain laws. fines have a limit on what the amount can me.
and thats how they get away with it

in crypto.because some millenial->GenZ has had no proper teachings about off shore accounts/shell companies. and legal entity "person". its easier to tie a human to an action
(however things could be done to change this)

this is why. for instance the clinton foundation can syphon money into the foundation. have no income tax on it because its not a human its a legal entity. then the clintons(humans) as beneficiaries but not owners can spend the money while not taking the responsibility for the fund
(EG they can plead ignorance when they get "donations" from terrorists)

however in crypto. whomever owns/controls the key is the perpetrator of anything bad that happened using them funds
this is usually where people should (not endorsing, speaking common sense knowledge) use multisigs so that it becomes difficult to prove who decided to move funds.
also people can set up coded triggers. that when funds enter X address a automated process is performed to move X to Y so that there is no human facilitating the transfer.
(plus it helps to not announce yourself on github that you coded such processes to facilitate certain tasks)

and other processes to turn a normal bitcoin holding into a off shore shell account style system

Bitcoin this, Bitcoin that, Bitcoin government headache, government lets kill this bitcoin, government spread negative news on bitcoin, when will all this stop? The government will always find one little thing to hold against what they don't want or what they don't want to exist.
Money Laundering started way back since the inception of fiat and is still going on, especially by business, so much illegal money has been washed through clubs and warehouses, and some coke has been exchanged in fiat printed by the same government. Criminals will always use any means to carry out their evils, I know it is a concern for the bitcoin ecosystem but they shouldn't make it look as if it only happens with bitcoin.

People will try to highlight the negative contribution of bitcoin in the market.
They forgot that up until now, fiat is still the leading currency when it comes to illegal stuffs.
This kind of news is a highlight as the money launderers was using crypto.
So it gave negative perception towards bitcoin. But if you educate these people regarding the nature of bitcoin,
they will understand that crypto is just one means in this illegal world of activities.

Of course! :D

We should all stop using anything that enables bad people to do bad things. Let's stop using firearms because they kill people. It doesn't matter that they also save lives and protect us from wild animals.
Let's stop using fiat money because people buy drugs with them.
Let's stop buying alcohol because people get drunk and fight.

Op is just trolling, don't mind him. 

Why f there is crime related to Bitcoin and crypto, the news will be very high sreading. But when the money laundering, as usual, is considered something that is a common situation.
Here, simply, crimes with Bitcoin or crypto is very small compared to criminal with non-BTC (like fiat and others). WHy should balme BTC always?
because there are so many interests in BTC, so many aprties still hate BTC that is why they always blame BTC for whatever the crimes.

certainly, i understand that, but we're talking about bitcoin here, so bitcoin and crime are really unrelated
if there is no bitcoin, criminals will use fiat, so why doesn't the government criticize or accuse fiat, they are targeting bitcoin, they see bitcoin as a threat to their dominance
if they don't like bitcoin, they can't use it and they can ban it but don't use illogical reasons to condemn bitcoin

Three persons were arrested for laundering millions of money stolen from the French treasury. Three suspects arrested. During the same time period there might be higher amount of money laundered through other means, and police could've arrested them. But, the news won't come outside. This is just a way of making a negative thought about cryptocurrency over the minds of people who were in a dilemma whether we can use crypto or not.

The government around the world just want to spread negative impact of bitcoin usage among people through these articles so that they avoid using it fearing that it's bad money but they will never succeed in these attempts like the past.The people need to realise and understand this reality that it's your money and depends on how you use it.Btc is unstoppable with these fake news.

Crime doesn't happen because of the Btc they use for money laundering, because I think crime happens how the person's intentions are, Fiat can also be done for money laundering if the person has bad intentions and wants to do money laundering. So whatever the form of Btc or Fiat, if the intention is bad, anything can be done. Think positive in any form, it happens because there are bad intentions and what they have planned for evil.

Indeed, right.
Money laundering already existed many years ago using fiat money before Bitcoin comes. However, many people see the potential use of Bitcoin to easily make such evil things without getting easily tracked by the authorities. As people become anonymous here, even the transactions got caught but only a few people have been found guilty and put in prison. This is the reason why criminals had used this as a medium for their major transactions unnoticed and went successfully.

What exactly is the essence of this post?
You didn't elaborate the post;
You also didn't include link;
Are you warning us about potential scam;
Are you trying to discredit bitcoin;
Are you suggesting that this forum should be shutdown because some people used bitcoin to commit crime?

For your information, I was scammed with btc and not by btc and today I am a believer of bitcoin. Let's go next page.

Cryptocurrency has been used severally for such cases but that doesn’t make it an illegal means of transaction. People tend to use something legal and clean for illegal activity just to make it looks bad to the public and for their benefits gain. Don’t fall for such acts and make conclusions that the use of cryptocurrency poses threat to the society.

well as some have already said, in the article they didn't talk about bitcoin specifically, they're just talking about cryptocurrencies (in this case there are 3 cryptocurrencies), talking about cryptocurrencies and money laundering, I think for very smart people they didn't use bitcoin for this type of crimes, it would be a serious mistake that they would be committing, using Fiat is the best option (of course I'm not encouraging this type of crime, I'm just saying that between bitcoin Vs fiat the best option is fiat ), in my country for For example, criminals keep kidnapping people and kill people and create stores and various businesses in order to justify the origin of the money, these criminals use fiat

If that is the case then fiat is still the option that the criminals, I mean there is no satisfaction for this kind of people by seeing tons of paper in front of them and feels very happy about it.

But laundering is another thing, and yes there are a lot of way to hide and wash everything. And unlike crypto, it will take a lot of effort, so this is not a good choice of criminals as it will just make things complicated for them. Just the usual, creating business up front or using heir existing already to hide the dirty money.

And they will find a way with all of their means just to succeed in their evil plan.
Money laundering is difficult to stop knowing that some corrupt government officials are already a part of this. But what does OP mean by blaming the crypto for this, I believe it was not right. This argument gives an idea to the people to also think evil things like this knowing that it was easy for them to hide from the authorities. Either fiat or crypto, these money launderers won't stop doing this as long as they are free and still have the chance.

News agencies also make it worse when they highlight these type of news making people think that bitcoin is only used by criminals. These criminals that involves bitcoin on their illegal activities are not completely anonymous because they will still convert it to fiat in order to spend it, if they do that then authorities can track and capture them. People are not aware that money laundering can be done using many mediums not just money. There are some criminals that use painting exhibits or anything that is expensive to execute those activities.

If they only use crypto to cleanse the money that they rob then yes it's not an example of illegal transaction. It's not that those criminals want to destroy the reputation btc by using it on their activities but the main reason they use btc is because it has a unique characteristic which can make them get away from the crime easily but sorry because authorities are just smarter than them, leading for them to be traced and caught.

As an old crypto user we already know that crypto is a legal currency but I don't know to some that are still new to it, maybe the news will make them confused and they will start to think negatively towards cryptos.

Unfortunately, that is how the media works especially if they hear something that could interest their viewers. They may have not spread false information rather they exaggerate or provide inadequate information to the public.

Indeed, in this scenario, it is wrong to blame crypto on such a case especially money laundering. Just as you've said, there are various ways for a criminal to launder money such as valuable assets like Arts, Painting, NFTs, and even through stocks or investments.

Everything have got its positive as well as the negative part. We can't expect everyone to use only the positive part of bitcoin. Whenever someone involves in such kind of activities, the same is being discussed big. This is just the media, and they do just as a part of their work. There are group of people who work to make this as a big issue, finding flaws with cryptocurrency. So, good is to avoid such news and have our own belief.

I don't really understand that what do you meaning by your title . How it could be called  Bitcoin Crime? The crime was committed by those three people, those who stole money from France. The crime word should be attached to their name, not to the name of Bitcoin. And everything has both good and bad sides. The real issue is where and how we are using it. There is no point in blaming that thing for our mistakes.

Indeed, in this case, we shouldn't really make it sound as if it's caused by bitcoins because they are objects if we look at the case as a whole.
There are already suspects and the case has also been explained which is fraud, but when dealing with Crypto, especially bitcoin, it is clear that only bitcoin will be highlighted which is considered a fraud even though it is clear that someone is cheating but the object is bitcoin.
It's not wrong with bitcoin if it's talking about right and wrong because it is only a handful of irresponsible people who do this.

I think he just want to emphasize crime that involves Bitcoin which newbie user usually overreacting when they heard this kind of news as if fiat money is not use on this kind of illegal transaction. Anti Bitcoin people usually focus on the negative side of Bitcoin use compared to the benefits of Blockchain technology in different financial aspect.

In my country this kind of news is the reason why Bitcoin has a bad reputation to common people here. They are afraid to invest on Bitcoin because they think it was scam since it was being use by scammer to scam uneducated people to a ponzi scheme.

I may not know the country that you are from but I believe your country has its own currency which is generally accepted as a means of payment of goods and services. The question here is this, have your local currency that is used in your country not been used to commit any financial crime if yes, why is it still accepted by the government of your country hence the educated and uneducated people still uses it for transactions? PS, I think most countries like your own are yet to accept Bitcoin because they are scared since they can't control it and the people involved in it not because people are using it for financial crimes.

Of course, crime everywhere will always exist, whether it's on the internet or in the real world, depending on how the person uses it, for example, a corruptor who wants to launder his money to buy some BTC, so as not to smell the crime, and in the end it will be bitcoin that will be considered bad  , while bitcoin is used as a digital currency that functions as the currency of the two worlds, so it all comes back to themselves.

In these few days we have been hearing unfavorable news about Bitcoin activities. There is also a thread that is discussing how a hacker withdrew some amount of money from a bitcoin ATM. Yes these news are not new because we have always heard of fiat crime and ATM hack, but it is not also helping the acceptance of Bitcoin. We must ensure we improve on the security of Bitcoin operations in order to outsmart these bad eggs that are bent on giving Bitcoin a bad name. I want to also state that there is no BTC crime. No crime is tailored to be specifically carried-out using Bitcoin. What we experience are criminals using Bitcoin to carry out their evil plans.     

This is a criminal activity that can be done with any currency or fiat money, not just Bitcoin. This is where criminals can take advantage of using Bitcoin to remain anonymous. So don't look for negative aspects of Bitcoin for a few isolated incidents. Rather, we need to look at the positive things of bitcoin.

Majority of people do not learn how to work earn bitcoin but they work to gain knowledge using it as a means of theft and hacking people, they hack using cryptocurrencies and or bitcoin. Clicking the article link above doesn't narrates they stole through Bitcoin. This funds stole was  set for "Grant on businesses affected by Covid-19".
I think more security question is needed when or transacting with bitcoin or crypto's to determined whether it is from the real user or not. Nowadays series of stories showcasing how people kept alarming of theft and hack which most commonly in all nation.

Please OP maybe when posting such information try including the source for individual to read get full expression on the events and how it goes your story doesn't fully explain how it goes if not people sourcing out how it happened.

Why are you constantly focusing on the negative parts?
I mean each and every coin has two faces. Similarly Bitcoins also. If you can use it for a noble cause, then it’s alright, but when you guys heard about Bitcoins involving in any criminal activity, then you start hating.
Nevertheless it’s great to hear that the criminal got arrested. He just wanted to use his brain and convert all the FIAT to BTC, and wanted to take the advantage of the decentralised nature of the coin.

Wherever there is money, there is also crime. That has always been the case in revolutionary. The greed of the people is the the problem. It drives one to a criminal action. So it's not just Bitcoin, it's everything else: Money, food, business deals, cars, houses, services and everywhere else where you deal with money. So criminal acts with "normal" money will happen much more, as it happens with bitcoin. The reason: bitcoin is used by less than 1% of all people in the world, so it doesn't happen so often.

I think it regularly happens anywhere else in the world not just on crypto but also in fiat, so why this is big news when it's not new already, I believe crypto is just a very limited avenue to laundered money because not every country and territory are accepting crypto while on fiat it's widely accepted and available I believe this news was only sensationalized to paint crypto industry, particularly Bitcoin a bad image. 

Through crypto does not exactly specify it is btc, could be other crypto as well, although you did not exactly provide the source link so i would presume btc was the crypto use for the money laundry. Money laundry is a crime that has been around even before the existent of btc and crypto, it is not something that suddenly occur since the emergence of btc.
This is not peculiar to btc or crypto, money launderers can use either fiat or digital currency to carry out their crime, it is a choice they made and not because they are compelled to do so, there are many positive aspect of crypto to embrace, it should not be the negative aspect. 

And whether we like it or not, this kind of criminal act has no ending story but expect a continuous doing as these criminals and those who are about to start had felt no worries at all. This was found to be normal this time and much easier for them due to new technologies surrounding us and sad to say that even the law enforcers are already involved with this. Definitely yes, we can't just blame Bitcoin for this as this kind of activities been already exist before this.

never stop news about the crime of Bitcoin, and I have heard and read for the umpteenth time, and I say Bitcoin is only used as a tool for money laundering and the same can happen with paper money,
so Bitcoin is not evil evil is people who use bitcoin for money laundering

These bitcoins and things will be used wherever you use them. There are many people who use this bitcoin for good work and there are many people who use this bitcoin for evil work.Those who use this Bitcoin for evil purposes also use their country's money for evil purposes.They use bad things to tarnish the reputation of Bitcoin. It is never right. Every thing should be taken advantage of.We always strive to put Bitcoin to good use and will continue to do so in the future.

How is it happened? was it stolen from the owner's wallets or the fiat money which was stole was converted to cryptocurrency? I have not really gotten your point. Money laundry is has old as human himself. If money can be laundry across boarders then cryptocurrency which also money (internet asset) can also be laundry. There is no big different between fiat and crypto when it come to stealing. But the slide different is. Fiat uses police, army and other security personals to secure the save while crypto uses seed phrase to secure their save (wallet). Fiat pays people to secure the save while crypto did not.

Thank you for your useful contribution. Indeed, using Bitcoin to launder stolen money is not a Bitcoin crime and should not be attributed to Bitcoin. He could have just as well used any other different store of value as a means to an end and would have reached the same result.

We should be careful about putting Bitcoin in a bad light as this will only slow down the rate of Bitcoin adoption and give bankers smiles on their faces.

Okay and? Brand new account coming here to post about this tends to lead others to believe you’re doing so just to try and spread FUD. The fact of the matter is money is laundered all the time via traditional fiat money, and there’s countless of others ways to do so as well.