The Spanish authorities are accrediting the Financial Crimes Unit T3, a consortium composed of Tron, Tether and TRM Labs, for helping to eliminate a multinational union of European financial crime.
According to the Civil Guard of Spain, the crime union operated in multiple European jurisdictions, providing cash washing services to Cristtpto for criminal companies.
T3 said it seized $ 26.4 million, calling it the most significant coordinated freezing with which it has been involved since its launch last year. Until now, the group says it has frozen $ 126 million.
“Public-private associations are particularly effective in cryptocurrency investigations because they take advantage of our different but complementary strengths,” said Chris Janczewski, head of TRM Labs research in an email to Coindeesk.
“The police contribute their traditional experience to investigation, while the private sector can contribute technical capabilities that are necessary for cryptographic investigation,” he continued.
The Spanish authorities identified the organization through police surveillance, and were assisted by several investigation measures and the virtual asset services provider (VASP) knows their client’s records (KYC), said the T3 statement.
“We have a team that can speak both ‘Crypto’ and ‘Police’, including former officials in charge of enforcing the law with extensive experience of several agencies,” added Janczewski. “That has allowed us to strengthen police work in the field of agencies as a civil guard so that they can connect the activity in the chain with the tangible word.”
In a statement, Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, added that Tether has collaborated with more than 220 law enforcement agencies in more than 51 jurisdictions to freeze more than 2,400 addresses, promoting almost 2.2 billion USDT.
A Europol statement said the organized crime union was “composed of Ukrainian citizens but also Armenians, Azerbaijanos or Kazakh.”
