British authorities have made three arrests on the grounds of suspected tax evasion, seizing three NFTs in the process.
Your jpgs are now Her Majesty’s
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which is the national tax authority in the UK, reportedly seized crypto assets worth a total of roughly 5,000 GBP, according to the BBC. That also included three NFT certificates to digital artwork.
Recently, NFTs came into the spotlight as a potential vehicle for money laundering. HMRC deputy director Nick Sharp called these attempts futile. He stated: We constantly adapt to new technology to ensure we keep pace with how criminals and evaders look to conceal their assets.
Money laundering schemes are becoming more sophisticated
According to the HMRC, the arrested suspects have used a set of sophisticated methods in order to conceal their identity. This included the use of false and stolen identities, false addresses, pre-paid unregistered mobile phones, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), false invoices, and over 250 shell companies. In total, the suspects have allegedly evaded taxes worth a total of 1.4 million GBP (1.8 million USD).
The case resembles the recent arrests of two US individuals tied to the 2016 Bitfinex hack. The two suspects also used a string of methods in their attempt to make the proceeds of the hack untraceable, but to no avail. After raiding their home, US authorities secured the private key holding roughly 94,000 BTC (~3.6 billion USD).
