cocaine
Venezuelan President Maduro Leveraged Cryptocurrency to Conceal Drug Ring Transactions According to US DOJ
Venezuelan President Maduro and 14 other high-ranking Venezuelan officials have been charged for their alleged involvement in a multibillion-dollar cocaine trafficking ring that the the DOJ claimed wreaked havoc on American communities by flooding the markets with cocaine for over 20 years. According to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Venezuelan officials had leveraged cryptocurrency in an attempt to mask their money trail on their alleged crimes
US Justice Department Charges Six People for Laundering Drug Cartel Money Using Crypto
The US Eastern District Court of Virginia has charged six people for allegedly involved in laundering millions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels using cryptocurrency.
Pablo Escobar’s Drug Runner Yasutaka Nakamoto "Could be" Satoshi Nakamoto
Who is Yasutaka Nakamoto? Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? Are they the same person – Olof Gustaffson believes that Yasutaka had the technical knowledge of creating Bitcoin, as he has had extensive experience with microprocessors and semiconductors. Roberto Escobar, brother of the drug kingpin Pablo Escobar has launched a fork of the Bitcoin blockchain, known as “Dietbitcoin,” in 2019, which later on relocated to Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard. Roberto Escobar claimed that he has encountered a US government agent posing as Satoshi Nakamoto, which he reached the conclusion that the US government created Bitcoin. He further believes that the US government will one day crash the market completely by selling all of Nakamoto’s Bitcoins.
Venezuela Wants Citizens to Pay Taxes in State-Issued Petro Cryptocurrency
Venezuela is moving on a mandate that could see taxes being collected using its state-issued cryptocurrency—the oil-backed Petro. The effort is part of a nation-wide campaign to create mainstream use cases for Venezuela’s cryptocurrency.
US Government Offers $5 Million Reward for the Arrest of Venezuela’s Head of Petro Cryptocurrency
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has added Venezuela’s head of Petro cryptocurrency agency, Joselit Ramirez, to its most wanted person’s list. The US government seeks to offer a $5 million reward for information leading to Ramirez’s arrest.
Bitcoin and Bad Guys
With Bitcoin a growing number of people have been choosing to opt-out of the traditional financial system, and others have even chosen to use the cryptocurrency to circumvent regulation altogether, leading to its unfortunate connection with illegal activity and shady characters.