The Frankfurt am Main Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Zurich Cantonal Public Prosecutor’s Office shut down the cryptomixer.io platform on Wednesday last week. According to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), German and Swiss authorities as well as Europol, Eurojust and US and other European investigators were involved in the operation. During the operation, the authorities confiscated the server infrastructure and cryptocurrencies worth around 25 million euros.
The platform had been active since 2016 and, according to the BKA, was one of the oldest and largest Bitcoin mixers still in existence. Such services make it possible to deposit and withdraw cryptocurrencies anonymously and thus conceal cash flows. According to investigators, the operators of cryptomixer.io used targeted measures to make it more difficult to trace payment flows. In addition, they expressly refrained from taking measures to identify their customers.
These features made the service a popular tool for the underground economy, according to the press release. The service generated billions of dollars in sales. The investigators assume that a large part of the assets exchanged there were of criminal origin. The operators are accused of commercial money laundering and operating a criminal trading platform on the Internet.
Extensive data material secured
In Switzerland, the authorities confiscated the associated server infrastructure and several email accounts. They seized extensive data from a file hosting service as evidence and deactivated the associated account. The knowledge gained should help solve further cyber crimes in the future.
The investigation was jointly led by the Frankfurt am Main Public Prosecutor’s Office – the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) – and the Zurich Cantonal Public Prosecutor’s Office. BKA and Europol contributed their expertise in the area of cybercrime and formed a joint investigation team with the Swiss authorities, the Zurich city police and the Zurich cantonal police.
Perpetrator not yet identified
BKA Vice President Martina Link described the operation as a further step in the international fight against online money laundering by crypto mixers. The authorities would counter cybercrime in an internationally coordinated manner, combine digital traces and increase the risk for the perpetrators.
ZIT Head Senior Public Prosecutor Dr. Benjamin Krause explained that the approach of “disruptive prosecution” of organized cybercrime had once again been successfully implemented. Even if the people involved have not yet been identified, the shutdown of the criminal service and the withdrawal of significant assets from the criminal scene represents a relevant success for the law enforcement authorities, said Krause.