According to Foresight News, CoinDesk reported that German authorities have closed 47 cryptocurrency exchanges suspected of being involved in criminal activities such as money laundering on the grounds that these exchanges deliberately failed to fulfill their obligations to conduct identity and background checks on customers. These include Xchange cash, 60cek, Baksman and some other smaller platforms. The authorities pointed out that since the controllers of these platforms often live in other countries outside of Germany, and these countries "tolerate or even protect" such criminal activities, German government officials are almost unable to prosecute.