Bitcoin, Ethereum, and money laundering on exchanges.
*by Fulvio Sarzana of S. Ippolito, Sarzana Law Firm, Rome
The Supreme Court of Cassation intervened again in criminal proceedings at the end of September 2022 regarding cryptocurrencies and the crime of self-laundering, declaring inadmissible the appeal of the de facto director of a joint-stock company under investigation for the crimes of fraudulent bankruptcy and self-laundering.
On the point of the transformation of money into cryptocurrencies through the use of a virtual currency exchange, the Court ruled: "As for the crime of self-laundering committed through the use, by the defendant, of part of the sums diverted from the company in speculative operations, in particular through the purchase of cryptocurrencies, it is noted that the court, with appropriate and therefore not at all apparent motivation, considered that such operations were concretely suitable to hinder the identification of the illicit origin of the money; highlighting how approximately 264,000 euros diverted by the bankrupt company had arrived, through intermediate steps that took place through companies, including foreign ones, always attributable to the XXXX family, on the current account of XXXX who had then arranged the investment on the virtual currency trading platform of Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world (of dubious origin and operation), and this moreover a few days after the execution of the search at the home of xxxx as further proof of the intent to transform the money to prevent its identification and therefore its criminal origin. Therefore, the argument put forward on this point is also manifestly unfounded, because, as this Court has repeatedly stated, for the crime of self-laundering to be established, the perpetrator does not need to engage in conduct involving the use, substitution, or transfer of money, goods, or other utilities that would absolutely impede the identification of their criminal origin. On the contrary, any activity that is concretely capable of even merely hindering investigations into their origin is sufficient.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and money laundering on exchanges.
English 
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