As Cointelegraph reported, the Swedish Police and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) classified cryptocurrency exchanges as “professional money launderers (PML)” and analyzed the services of unlicensed and illegal providers.
FIU Sweden pointed out that PML is linked to crime and helps individuals and criminal networks to systematically launder money. FIU divides PML into four categories: node transaction providers, hawala transaction providers, asset transaction providers and platform transaction providers.
The report calls on law enforcement to increase monitoring of crypto trading platforms to curb illegal services, and considers illegal crypto providers an emerging threat in money laundering schemes.
Swedish authorities have acknowledged the role of legal crypto trading platforms in curbing money laundering, urging them to observe users’ suspicious trading patterns and take necessary action.
Sweden’s recent crackdown on illegal crypto activity also involves the Bitcoin (BTC) mining community. The Swedish Tax Agency investigated the operations of 21 crypto mining companies between 2020 and 2023 and found that 18 of them submitted “misleading or incomplete” information to evade value-added tax (VAT).
The crypto mining companies appealed the $90 million tax claims, and two of the companies’ appeals were accepted by the Administrative Court, which adjusted the relevant amounts.