The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) recently announced the successful dismantling of a transnational cryptocurrency money laundering network involving London, Moscow, and Dubai. This network primarily operated through two companies, Smart and TGR, providing money transfer services for global criminals.

From the end of 2022 to the summer of 2023, the network assisted multiple criminal organizations, including the Kinahan drug trafficking group, in money laundering. Its operation involved couriers collecting cash, exchanging it for cryptocurrencies like USDT, and then completing the laundering through the company network.

Ekaterina Zhdanova, the owner of Smart, has been accused of transferring large sums of money to the UAE and has been sanctioned and detained. The NCA described this as its most significant anti-money laundering operation, resulting in the arrest of 84 individuals and the seizure of £20 million.