Share this article

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.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW

Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the State of Crypto Newsletter today. See all newsletters

By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

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.

Crime Australia Money Laundering CoinFlash

Tanzeel Akhtar

Tanzeel Akhtar has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Forbes Africa, Financial Times, The Street, Citywire, Investing.com, Euromoney, Yahoo! Finance, Benzinga, Kitco News, African Business Magazine, Hedge Week, Campden Family Office, Modern Investor, Spear's Wealth Management Magazine, Global Investor, ETF.com, ETF Stream, CIO UK, Funds Global Asia, Portfolio Institutional, Interactive Investor, Bitcoin Magazine, CryptoNews.com, Bitcoin.com, The Local, The Next Web, Mining Journal, Money Marketing, Marketing Week and more. Tanzeel trained as a foreign correspondent at the University of Helsinki, Finland and newspaper journalist at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. She holds a BA (Honours) in English Literature from the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and completed a semester abroad as an ERASMUS student at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. She is NCTJ Qualified - Media Law, Public Administration and passed the Shorthand 100WPM with distinction. She does not currently hold value in any digital currencies or projects.