Organized crime gangs in Ireland are renting private vaults to store the private keys and seed phrases that control crypto wallets, according to the Criminal Assets Bureau. The keys sit alongside cash, luxury watches and other valuables, the bureau’s chief said.
Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Gubbins, who runs the bureau, told the Sunday Independent the practice turned up in the bureau’s own investigations. The bureau has reported it to the government’s Anti-Money Laundering Steering Committee, which is preparing Ireland for new EU rules.
Vault contents, Gubbins said, could be cryptocurrency keys, cash, watches, or even travel documents. “Again, it’s from our experience, what we would have seen around those matters,” he added.
New EU Rules Coming
The steering committee is getting Ireland ready for EU rules due next summer. Those rules will stop cash transactions above €10,000 and will require businesses to name anyone spending €3,000 or more in cash. Businesses that offer crypto services, luxury goods retailers and platforms that raise money from the public will all face closer supervision going forward.
Ireland published its first national anti-money laundering strategy last month. That followed an action plan that already strengthened protections around crypto in the country.
Why Gangs Turn to Crypto
Gangs turn to crypto to distribute risk against loss to the state, Gubbins said, and for the cover they believe it provides. Members of these gangs believe crypto lets them hide their wealth from the state, he said, though he also pointed to problems that cut against that appeal, including price changes and the risk of losing wallet passwords for good.
Even so, Gubbins described crypto use among Irish criminal gangs as still quite simple. Cash remains the leading form of dirty money in the country. He said it remains a cash business for those who move goods banned by law for profit.
Cash in a Vault
Instead of crypto, the bureau has more often run into paid helpers who move money for criminal customers. These include operators of a system by which cash handed over in one country is paid out in another without crossing a border. Gubbins put the fee charged for that service at roughly 6%.
In one such investigation, the bureau seized €230,000 from a safe box held at a private vault company.
Cash, watches, crypto keys, documents — all of it, it seems, can end up behind the same locked door.
The 6,000 BTC Case
The bureau is also working through the largest crypto recovery in its history. Here is how that case has unfolded so far:
- In 2019, the bureau took 6,000 BTC from a man who grew a substance the law forbids.
- The private keys to the wallets were written down and kept in a case meant for fishing gear, which was later lost.
- The bureau opened the first of 12 wallets in March, with outside help.
- Gubbins said more than €130 million of the €360 million holding has now been turned into cash.
The bureau returned almost €15 million to the Irish treasury last year.
Between the vault rentals, the cash networks and the gradual opening of the 6,000 BTC case, Gubbins’ account paints a picture of Irish organized crime still relying heavily on cash and older ways of moving money between people, with crypto sitting on the edges as a rough, imperfect backup rather than a main method.
Source: decrypt.co
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