Apparently some person was arrested in Greece for "laundering" $4 billion in BTC, accused by the USA
So obviously BTC could be used for laundering money, though it's a really stupid idea since transactions are all recorded in the blockchain. And obviously money can be laundered in USD also.
Yada yada yada, he was caught in Greece.
The sad thing about this whole scenario is that the US will steal all the money if they get ahold of the servers. The outrage if they did this with a traditional securities firm would be incredible, but the can just label a bitcoin exchange as money launderers and steal from the clients. Most people are too stupid to do any research on what the firm actually did. BTC-e has been by far the most reliable exchange in Bitcoins history. I have used it extensively. Even with unknown owners it had heavy traffic and was well ran. I have had absolutely no problems using it. Now compare that to Coinbase where I get random audits from them about my bitcoin purchases. Or how about MT Gox which had a host of issues, Poloniex which has been hacked several times, Bitstamp, Bifinex and Bter have all been hacked. Other exchanges have just shut down and exit scammed. BTC-e has always been very trustworthy.
The US just doesn't like the secretive nature of the exchange. But if they were traditional money launderers they would actually charge decent fees. BTC-e charges .2% hardly the money you would expect from a large money laundering operation.
Its so ironic how the people who are running these exchanges are so ignorant of how the actual technology works. If they had any common sense they would have diverted that BTC into untraceable altcoins like Monero in order to wash it properly. Straight BTC thru his personal wallet... like some kind of amateur :-D https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@hotsauceislethal/bitcoin-price-forecast-7-26-2017
He should have just operated in a country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the countries where people were effected.
I mean, if you are moving 4 billion dollars, I think you could afford to set up a business in some backwater of Africa.
I wouldn't assume any virtual currencies are untraceable.
Criminals are not the brightest bunch. I mean look at the alleged hacker who pretty much confessed to stealing millions during an unrelated investigation.
Right, not talking to the po po is a no brainer lol