ChainCatcher news, according to the Nikkei, a joint task force composed of the Cyber Special Investigation Division of the National Police Agency and police forces from 9 prefectures including Saitama Prefecture arrested 26-year-old Yuta Kobayashi, whose address and occupation are unknown, on suspicion of committing fraud using a computer. Kobayashi is believed to be the leader of the group, with losses exceeding 100 million yen (approximately $667,100). The group allegedly abused the highly secretive Monero to attempt money laundering, and Kobayashi's identity was determined through tracking the flow of funds. The National Police Agency stated that this is the first time in Japan that Monero has been analyzed to identify a suspect.

ChainCatcher news, the Central Seoul Police Station is pursuing a criminal gang that is robbing under the pretext of virtual asset trading. The gang violently threatened the victim on the 23rd in an apartment office in Jung-gu, Seoul, forcibly taking a bag containing approximately 180 million won in cash. The victim was planning to conduct a face-to-face virtual asset transaction in their office at the time of the crime and refused to hand over the money to the gang, stating, "I haven't received the coins yet."The police have arrested four suspects, including the main perpetrator, and have applied for an arrest warrant for the main suspect. They are currently tracking the whereabouts of the remaining three suspects.

ChainCatcher news, according to reports from Heshun Public Security, the Criminal Investigation Team of Heshun County Public Security Bureau successfully dismantled a criminal gang that specialized in defrauding victims of funds, withdrawing cash, and laundering money using USDT after meticulous investigation.In early September 2024, a local resident Zhao was scammed out of 50,000 yuan by someone impersonating a government official, and the funds were directly withdrawn from a bank in Chongqing. The investigating police officers reviewed a large amount of bank surveillance footage and transaction records, discovering that the suspects used "clients" to purchase cars and apply for loans. After obtaining the "clients'" bank card information, they sent it to foreign scammers via Telegram. Once the victim's defrauded funds were transferred to the "client's" bank account, they falsely claimed to the "client" that cash needed to be withdrawn for the car dealership. After receiving the transferred scam funds from the "client," they immediately converted the involved funds into USDT and transferred them abroad. This gang is linked to over 10 cases in Beijing, Shanghai, Anhui, and other locations.With strong support from the Municipal Bureau's Criminal Investigation Team and the County Bureau's Cybersecurity Team, the investigating officers gradually grasped the complete structure and criminal evidence of the money laundering gang using USDT, and identified the characteristics and activity range of the suspect responsible for withdrawing the scam funds.The investigating officers simultaneously carried out arrest operations in Chongqing, Henan, and other locations, capturing 7 suspects, seizing one involved vehicle, 10 mobile phones, one cash detector, and over 37,000 yuan in cash. The case is still under further investigation.

ChainCatcher news, eight members of a criminal gang involved in a Chinese phone scam in South Korea were arrested by the police for assisting in converting criminal proceeds into cryptocurrency. The police pointed out that the gang used fake bank accounts for money laundering, converting 280 million won (approximately 208,000 USD) defrauded from six victims into cryptocurrency, which was then handed over to a Chinese organization, earning a commission of 10% to 40%.It is reported that to avoid police investigation, the members of the organization only communicated through Telegram.

ChainCatcher news, Ukrainian police arrested a criminal gang on Monday that is suspected of impersonating law enforcement officials and threatening a young entrepreneur with fictitious criminal charges, extorting $250,000 in USDT. According to a statement, four suspects detained by the cyber police and the National Police's Internal Security Department face up to 12 years in prison.The gang allegedly intimidated the entrepreneur, accusing him of collaborating with Russia and threatening him with long-term imprisonment for treason. They offered to "solve the problem" for $250,000 and demanded the payment be made in cryptocurrency.Concerned about the legal consequences, the entrepreneur agreed to the demands and transferred 250,000 USDT to a cryptocurrency wallet controlled by the gang. According to the statement, the criminals then quickly moved the stolen funds through a cryptocurrency exchange.

ChainCatcher news, according to the official WeChat account of the Jiuquan Public Security Bureau, recently, the Yumen Public Security Bureau's special task force has been continuously working hard. After more than a month of efforts, they have traveled to Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Fujian and other places, capturing 9 criminal suspects who used virtual currency "USDT" to transfer fraud-related funds and illegally profit. They successfully dismantled a criminal gang that used virtual currency "USDT" to transfer fraud-related funds, with involved funds exceeding 10 million yuan.

ChainCatcher news, according to the report from the Traffic Police Brigade of the Public Security Bureau of Linyi City, the team recently dismantled a criminal gang that was laundering money for fraudsters, arresting 4 criminal suspects. On July 1, after receiving a tip from a local resident, Ms. Li, about a possible investment fraud, the police immediately contacted her. Ms. Li admitted that a month ago she was lured by a "successful man" to recharge over 600,000 yuan on a fake investment platform.The police identified the suspects and pursued them overnight for over 1,500 kilometers, successfully capturing suspects Li and Qiu in Changning, Hunan. Subsequently, they successfully apprehended Zeng and Miao, who were counting cash, on the outskirts of Tancheng.Investigations revealed that this criminal gang used virtual currency trading methods to conspire multiple times with overseas fraud suspects to transfer the scammed funds, illegally profiting over 50,000 yuan from it.

ChainCatcher news, TokenPocket's Chief Business Officer Michael posted on platform X, stating that recently the Chinese police cracked down on a criminal gang that was impersonating the TokenPocket wallet. This gang had been long-term advertising through browsers, posting phishing links to steal users' private keys.

ChainCatcher news, according to the Zhejiang Procuratorate public account, recently a criminal gang in Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province illegally cashed out over 200,000 yuan within four days using digital RMB accounts. Several individuals lured merchants with digital RMB accounts through shopping and casual conversations. After the merchants agreed to cash out, they first converted a certain amount of their own money into virtual currency as a deposit to transfer to the upper-level operator, and then sent the digital RMB payment code to the upper-level operator. Once the fraudulent funds entered the merchant's digital RMB account, the merchant deducted a handling fee ranging from 1% to 1.5% and cashed out the corresponding amount. The Yuecheng District Procuratorate filed a public prosecution, and the court sentenced Yuan, Zhang, and Kou to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from one year and four months to seven months for the crime of concealing and disguising criminal proceeds, along with fines.Prosecutors remind the public to enhance their understanding of digital RMB, pay attention to protecting personal information, and report any suspicious situations promptly to safeguard their property security.

ChainCatcher news, according to Newspim, the Intelligent Crime Investigation Team of the Changwon Western Police Station in Gyeongnam, South Korea, stated that 22 people, including the general manager of an investment company, A, were arrested on suspicion of forgery of receipts and fraud, with 11 of them detained.The gang is suspected of soliciting investments in virtual assets through a multi-layered organization, falsely claiming to guarantee a high return of 300%, collecting 110 billion won (approximately 82.99 million USD) from 6,610 victims. Investment manager A promoted the company as "a financial technology comprehensive asset management company based on the real economy, with main business activities including the listing of 'coins' in the domestic market and entering the Korean won exchange market."Investigations revealed that the main business activities advertised by the company were all false, and the criminal method was a typical Ponzi scheme, known as the "revolving door" model, where the investments of junior investors were used to subsidize those of senior investors.

ChainCatcher news, according to the CCTV News client report, the Taiyuan police in Shanxi province have dismantled a criminal gang that provided "money laundering" services for telecom fraud groups using a large-scale gold trading lead. So far, a total of 15 suspects have been arrested, involving more than 127 telecom network fraud cases across the country, with a total transaction amount of 135 million yuan.According to investigations, this criminal gang was led by Deng (male, 31 years old, from Hainan). Since early February 2023, they began to undertake "money laundering" operations for overseas telecom fraud and online gambling funds. The gang was divided into groups for receiving funds, scouting, card swiping, transporting gold, currency trading, and selling stolen goods.After Deng contacted the overseas fraud gang for "money laundering" services, he reached out to "card dealers" to find "card farmers" to receive funds from overseas fraud and online gambling; the scouting group would visit major gold stores to look for those with a large amount of gold in stock; then the card swiping and transporting group would swipe cards to purchase gold together with the card farmers, and afterwards, they would choose relatively hidden public places to hand over the gold to the transporting group; the "gold transporters" would transfer the gold to Shenzhen and hand it over to the "currency traders"; the "currency traders" would sell the stolen goods and convert the proceeds into virtual currency to be handed over to Deng; finally, Deng would transfer the virtual currency to the overseas fraud gang. To evade police crackdown, Deng communicated with overseas contacts and domestic accomplices solely through overseas chat software and used virtual currency for settlements.The police have frozen and seized involved funds amounting to 3.479 million yuan, confiscated two cars, over 30 mobile phones used in the crimes, 13 SIM cards, and 9 POS machines. Currently, Deng, Xie, Ni, and 10 other suspects have been legally transferred to prosecution for concealing and disguising criminal proceeds and the crime of benefiting from criminal proceeds. Han and Zhang have been transferred to local police in other areas.

ChainCatcher news, according to Phoenix Network, recently, the police in Jining, Shandong Province, cracked a case involving cross-border gambling and the dissemination of obscene materials, which was listed as a target case by the Ministry of Public Security during the "Clean Internet 2023" special operation. They dismantled 6 involved gangs, arrested 64 criminal suspects, and seized a batch of mobile phones and computers used in the crimes. Investigations revealed that the involved online platform accepted illegal personnel deposits totaling 1.581 billion yuan, with the platform profiting 516 million yuan. It is reported that this criminal gang typically used foreign social networking software for communication and conducted financial settlements through virtual currencies and other means.