In this image supplied by the RCMP, officers are seen working. The RCMP said their money-laundering team began an investigation last year after a tip from European authoritiesSupplied
The RCMP say they have taken down a cryptocurrency platform that was being used mainly for criminal transactions, what the force claims is the largest crypto bust in Canadian history.
In a statement Thursday, the force’s federal policing wing in Quebec said it had recovered $56-million from a platform known as TradeOgre, “the first time that a cryptocurrency exchange platform has been dismantled by Canadian law enforcement.”
The Quebec RCMP said their money-laundering team began an investigation last year after a tip from European authorities and found that the platform had failed to register as a money services business and did not identify its clients.
“Investigators have reason to believe that the majority of funds transacted on TradeOgre came from criminal sources,” the RCMP statement said. “The main attraction of this type of platform, which doesn’t require users to identify themselves to make an account, is that it hides the source of funds.”
The statement did not say whether police had made any arrests in connection with the seizure. It included a screenshot of the cryptocurrency exchange platform, which had been replaced with a post that read: “This site and its cryptoassets have been seized by the RCMP.”
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