Australian Man Arrested for Trying to Launder $4.3M With Bitcoin

Australian authorities have arrested a Sydney man for money laundering after he allegedly tried to convert almost AU$5.5 million (US$4.3 million) in cash into bitcoin through a criminal syndicate.

• New South Wales Police arrested Yi Zhong on Monday after stopping his car in a Sydney suburb and seized $1 million in cash, cocaine and electronic devices, according to a report by the Australian Financial Review on Monday.
• Zhong is alleged to have been trying to convert the cash into cryptocurrency using “money-launderers for hire” and further arrests are anticipated.
• The operation is being led by a cybercrime team called Strike Force Curns, set up in October to investigate the money-laundering syndicate.
• Zhong now faces drug-dealing and money-laundering charges and was refused bail by the Burwood Local Court on Monday, per the report.
• The news marks the country's second major money laundering case involving cryptocurrency after an Australian woman was charged by New South Wales State Police for illegally exchanging over $3 million last May.

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