eight bitcoin distributors placed under seal by the judicial police

• The judicial police have placed under seal eight distributors of bitcoins, a virtual currency whose value continues to break records.
• They were installed in several large cities in France by a Polish company targeted by a money laundering investigation.
• The investigators are indeed wondering about the illicit nature of the funds contained in these machines.

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“This is the first operation of this type in France”, explains to 20 Minutes Commissioner Anne-Sophie Coulbois, head of the OCRGDF (Central Office for the Repression of Major Financial Crime). The investigators of the judicial police placed under seal, last Friday, eight distributors of bitcoins which had been installed in Lille, Marseille, Cannes, Nice, Grenoble, Rouen and Paris by ATS, a Polish company targeted by an investigation for aggravated money laundering. The money they contained, around 191,000 euros, was seized. At this stage, the investigation has not given rise to arrests.

The Bitcoin ATM in my neighborhood has closed … pic.twitter.com/OaV7VKl1Rp

– Pierre Januel (@PJanuel) December 20, 2020

Last January, ATS installed one of these distributors, allowing you to buy or sell bitcoins, in the popular Fives district of Lille. “However, cryptocurrencies can be important vectors of money laundering”, remarks Commissioner Coulbois. An investigation, entrusted to the interregional direction of the Lille judicial police, was opened by the city’s public prosecutor’s office, which has since relinquished jurisdiction in favor of the national court responsible for the fight against organized crime. The police first discovered that these devices were not registered with the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers) as required by law.

Funds of dubious origin

Friday, investigators from the territorial services of the PJ, and those of the OCRGF, therefore placed under seal eight distributors during a coordinated operation throughout the territory. Beyond this regulatory offense, the police officers of the central direction of the judicial police, who have recovered the rest of the investigations, are also wondering about the illicit nature of the funds they contained. Indeed, customs checked, at the Franco-Belgian border, employees of this Polish company who were carrying a little more than 40,000 euros of dubious origin. Were these ATMs used to launder dirty money? “The investigation is still ongoing, in particular on this aspect”, indicates Commissioner Coulbois.

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