Brazilian Police to Freeze Suspected Fraudsters’ Crypto Holdings
Brazilian police have asked courts to freeze the crypto holdings of suspected electronics-trading fraudsters as part of a “mega operation.”
The Brazilian media outlet Livecoins reported that officers took part in an operation codenamed Spin-Off.
The operation involves the Federal Police and the Receita Federal (the Special Department of Federal Revenue).
Officers raided properties in the states of São Paulo, Mato Grosso, and Mato Grosso do Sul.
Some 180 federal police officers and 74 tax auditors swooped, as courts granted the officers 50 “search and seize” warrants in the cities of Cuiabá, Várzea Grande, Sinop, Alta Floresta, Rondonópolis, Ribeirão Preto, and Ponta Porã.
The investigators were granted freezing orders for crypto wallets by a branch of the Federal Criminal Court.
This would appear to indicate that the wallets in question are hosted on domestic crypto exchange platforms.
But the police did not divulge any information about which platforms had been asked to cooperate.
Nor did officers disclose the value of the holdings or the type of coins it had asked the court to freeze.
The police said that the “objective” of their operation was to “dismantle” what it called a “criminal organization” that investigators think masterminded a “complex financial scheme.”
Officers claimed that the organization purchased electronics items from overseas buyers and sold them to domestic buyers.
And the police added that they suspected the group of “moving high amounts” of cash and/or crypto received from electronics buyers into accounts belonging to “paper” companies.
These firms, the police think, were “fronts” and were registered in the name of intermediaries.
Officers said they thought the companies were used in a bid to throw
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