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Australian Man Arrested for Trying to Launder $4.3M With Bitcoin

The man was arrested in his car, where police found $1 million in cash, cocaine and electronic devices.

Updated Sep 14, 2021, 12:14 p.m. Published Feb 22, 2021, 10:40 a.m.

Australian authorities have arrested a Sydney man for money laundering after he allegedly tried to convert almost AU$5.5 million (US$4.3 million) in cash into bitcoin through a criminal syndicate.

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New South Wales Police arrested Yi Zhong on Monday after stopping his car in a Sydney suburb and seized $1 million in cash, cocaine and electronic devices, according to a report by the Australian Financial Review on Monday.
Zhong is alleged to have been trying to convert the cash into cryptocurrency using “money-launderers for hire” and further arrests are anticipated.
The operation is being led by a cybercrime team called Strike Force Curns, set up in October to investigate the money-laundering syndicate.
Zhong now faces drug-dealing and money-laundering charges and was refused bail by the Burwood Local Court on Monday, per the report.
The news marks the country's second major money laundering case involving cryptocurrency after an Australian woman was charged by New South Wales State Police for illegally exchanging over $3 million last May.