Canada’s national police – the RCMP – recently shared details pertaining to the biggest bust of an unlicensed crypto exchange in the country’s history. The federal police agency confiscated digital assets worth $40 million.
Notably, the assets were seized from a non-KYC crypto trading platform, TradeOgre. The incident also marked the first time ever that a digital asset trading platform was dismantled by Canadian law enforcement.
Following a tip from Europol, the Money Laundering Investigative Team (MLIT) opened the case in June 2024. During their investigation, the agency found that TradeOgre violated Canadian laws and regulations about virtual asset trading platforms. The statement reads:
Investigators have reason to believe that the majority of funds transacted on TradeOgre came from criminal sources. The main attraction of this type of platform, which doesn’t require users to identify themselves to make an account, is that it hides the source of funds. This is a common tactic used by criminal organizations that launder money.
It is worth highlighting that TradeOgre’s website now displays a banner from the RCMP, mentioning the seizure of crypto assets from the platform. The official statement adds that the transaction data obtained from the platform is being analyzed, and charges are likely to follow.
The RCMP’s seizure of TradeOgre’s crypto assets is just the latest development in the global crypto seizure trend. Due to crypto’s lack of standard global regulations, nefarious elements tend to take advantage of the lack of oversight on the new asset class.
