As per the latest reports, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has taken action against the cryptocurrency exchanges in Ukraine. The authority has reportedly taken down several exchanges that were dealing in cryptocurrencies.
However, the crackdown conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine is not on all of the cryptocurrency exchanges. The security has taken down cryptocurrency exchanges that have been involved in processing illegal transactions.
The sources have revealed that the illegal cryptocurrency transactions that the SBU has discovered are since the beginning of 2021. As a result of the crackdown, several cryptocurrency exchanges committing such crimes have been shut down.
The announcement in regards to the crackdown was made by the Security Service of Ukraine on Wednesday, August 11, 2021. In the announcement, the SBU has provided more details about the corrupt cryptocurrency exchanges.
The regulatory authority has announced that the cryptocurrency exchanges involved in such illegal transaction activities are based in the capital (Kyiv) of Ukraine.
These cryptocurrency exchanges were involved in processing illegal transactions secretly and tried keeping the facts hidden for as long as they could.
The regulator revealed very shocking facts about the collective turnovers these cryptocurrency exchanges were able to generate from their illegal activities.
According to the Security Service of Ukraine, these cryptocurrencies were collectively able to generate $1.1 million worth of funds on a monthly basis from such activities.
The regulatory authority revealed that while these exchanges openly offered cryptocurrency-related services, they were secretly offering such services. They allowed the customers to process illegal transactions with full assurance of never getting caught.
As a result, these cryptocurrency exchanges were in breach of the anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. It had become a huge problem for the government of Ukraine as money laundering cases were constantly on the rise in the country.
Therefore, the Security Service of Ukraine had to intervene and deal with the matter aggressively. Without giving the exchanges any time to handle the situation or come up with excuses, the SBU shut the exchanges down for good.
The SBU also revealed that through these exchanges, there were many elements trying to instigate dis-balance in the country.
Many people were found funding groups within the country that would organize protests in different parts of the country.
The Security Service of Ukraine also provided more details around the sources where the funds were being transferred through.
The SBU confirmed that several e-wallet services were being used in order to transfer funds into Ukraine through these exchanges.
According to the SBU, most of these e-wallets belonged to Russia that had been banned by the government of Ukraine in the past.
The SBU even named these e-wallet service providers that include Yandex, WebMoney, and Qiwi.
