Ecocrime asks people to stay away – E24

Just a couple of weeks before the two were arrested and charged by Økokrim for fraud by Nav’s wage compensation scheme and money laundering, one of them is said to have transferred NOK 1.7 million to a bitcoin account. , the police believe.

According to the chief state prosecutor Petter Nordeng in Økokrim, the money comes from criminal acts. Now the police are taking an extraordinary step to prevent further money laundering and money laundering.

As the first known case in Norway, they are now made public with a warning about the address of a specific “bitcoin wallet” and say that the funds in this account should not be touched.

Ecocrime claims that the bitcoin account they want to “freeze” has the following address: 3NHUzkphkm3PTdCdg5Gg9nqBp5oUFLLEkX.

The account contains just over 18.44 bitcoins, which corresponds to more than 1.7 million crowns.

– We try to go a little ahead, instead of coming after and punishing people for having moved the dividend more, that is, for committing cures or money laundering. We are now trying to get ahead and actually prevent the money from reaching the perpetrators on the other side of a money laundering operation, Nordeng says.

Quickly taken to crypto

The background is that the two men in custody will soon be released from total isolation and therefore have a chance to lose evidence.

According to the prison sentence against one of the two, to which E24 has access, the court “emphasized the receipt by the defendant and the rapid transfer of the Nav money, probably to cryptocurrencies, which is based on the seizure made in relation to the arrest of the accused “.

– In this case, approximately four million have been cheated out of this support scheme. In addition, against this bitcoin account, income from other criminal acts has also been tested, says Nordeng.

A man, when arrested in August, was recently convicted of serious bank fraud and was awaiting an appeal of the verdict when, according to Økokrim, he cheated Nav for four million crowns.

Nordeng says that so far there is no indication that the money from the previous judgment has ended up in the bitcoin account.

When the two men were recently arrested, one of the defense attorneys for the two defendants, Maren Jenserud at Advokat Bratteng, said that her client rejects any knowledge of any crime and does not admit guilt. On Friday, Jenserud writes in an SMS to E24 that he does not want to comment further on the matter.

Albulena Krasniqi at Furuholmen Dietrichson, who defends the other defendant, says she does not have a comment, as the case documents are conditional.

In keeping with the signs from the top

Information on the bitcoin address shows that the funds were transferred in a transaction on August 4 of this year, roughly two weeks before the two were arrested. In the same operation, two other people were also arrested and charged, but finally released, by the police.

Nordeng says Økokrim now wants information on people trying to exchange funds that originate from the bitcoin wallet.

– Since it is the proceeds of crime, we want to prevent the perpetrators from obtaining this money. Crime shouldn’t pay off, and that’s why it’s important to us that this money is stopped and not passed on to those behind it, Nordeng tells E24.

The move is in line with signals from Økokrim CEO Pål Lønseth that Økokrim should be more “outgoing” and operate preemptively.

– This is the first time that we do it so big and in this way. We’re not just hanging out with potential money changers, we’re going out here and telling everyone that this wallet is the proceeds of crime.

The world’s first, rightly so, is not: among other things, the US Treasury Department first issued two specific bitcoin addresses associated with two Iranian nationals in 2018 who exchanged bitcoin for Iranian rijal after several virus attacks with ransom.

– Obviously Nav has been tricked

– What ethical issues did Økokrim face before coming up with this?

– In all the cases where you go out in public with information from a criminal case, it is privacy considerations that weigh heavily. We have also considered this in this case and found that the need to prevent, to prevent the perpetrators from keeping money that we know for sure comes from a criminal act, makes this measure necessary, says Nordeng.

He adds that Økokrim has no doubt that the 1.7 million come from criminal acts.

– The special thing about these cases is that it is quite obvious that Nav has been tricked. The investigation is about who did it. And it doesn’t matter if the money is the proceeds of crime. You can imagine that you will never find the scammer, but as long as you have proven that it is indeed a fraud, then this is the product of a criminal act, and then it doesn’t matter who cheated.

Actors who receive funds from the “wallet” are asked to withhold the funds and contact local police as soon as possible.

– The collection of the proceeds of criminal activity has a high priority. Ecocrime also has a clear expectation that these funds will not be converted or transferred to people related to the current crime, Nordeng says.

At the same time, Økokrim requests that you contact if you have received funds in good faith from this address.

Ecocrime has long viewed cryptocurrencies as “very suitable for financing criminal activities and used for money laundering.”