{"id":4621,"date":"2024-06-21T15:14:27","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T15:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/21\/two-arrested-over-running-illegal-1bn-cryptocurrency-exchange-in-london\/"},"modified":"2024-06-21T15:14:27","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T15:14:27","slug":"two-arrested-over-running-illegal-1bn-cryptocurrency-exchange-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/21\/two-arrested-over-running-illegal-1bn-cryptocurrency-exchange-in-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Two arrested over \u2018running illegal \u00a31bn cryptocurrency exchange\u2019 in London"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Two people have been arrested on suspicion of running an illegal exchange thought to have traded more than \u00a31bn worth of cryptocurrency. <\/p>\n<p>The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) searched the London offices of the suspects, aged 38 and 44, while <strong>the Metropolitan Police<\/strong> seized digital devices from two residential properties in the capital.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sdc-site-outbrain sdc-site-outbrain--AR_6\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-component-name=\"sdc-site-outbrain\" data-target=\"\" data-widget-mapping=\"\" data-installation-keys=\"\">    <\/div>\n<p>More than \u00a31bn worth of unregistered <strong>crypto<\/strong> assets are believed to have been bought and sold through the exchange.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Money Blog latest: Interest rates held again<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Both suspects were interviewed under caution before being released on bail and the FCA says its investigation into the case was ongoing.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad ad--teads\">        <\/div>\n<p>Therese Chambers, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: &#8220;The FCA has an important role to play in keeping dirty money out of the UK financial system.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These arrests show we will do everything in our power to stop crypto firms from operating illegally in the UK.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The arrests follow a recent global crackdown on crypto companies after the collapse of some of the biggest firms in the sector, leading to millions of people losing money they had invested in cryptocurrencies.<\/p>\n<p>The high-profile implosion of FTX, the crypto exchange run by <strong>Sam Bankman-Fried, saw the mogul sentenced to 25 years in prison<\/strong> in the US for defrauding customers and investors.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Changpeng &#8220;CZ&#8221; Zhao, the founder of crypto exchange Binance, <strong>was sentenced to four months in prison<\/strong> in April for allowing criminals to launder money on his platform.<\/p>\n<p>Zhao, who resigned from Binance in November, pleaded guilty to breaking US money laundering laws.<\/p>\n<p>Binance is still operating and remains the biggest crypto exchange in the world by transaction volumes.<\/p>\n<p>The FCA has a register of so-called authorised crypto companies which are allowed to operate from the UK.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, the list numbers 45, including crypto spinoffs set up by financial giants such as Fidelity, Standard Chartered, and Japanese investment bank Nomura.<\/p>\n<p>But a separate list of crypto companies the regulator suspects of operating illegally in the UK has more than 13,000 businesses on it.<\/p>\n<p>The FCA also forces registered crypto firms to prove they comply with UK money laundering regulations in order to operate legally.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div>This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two people have been arrested on suspicion of running an illegal exchange thought to have&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}