The Coin Laundry, the latest investigation from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, brought together journalists from more than 35 countries to expose dirty money flowing into the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. From Canada to France, Uruguay, Malaysia and beyond, the investigation shed light on this growing shadow economy.
Reporting by ICIJ’s 37 media partners examined scams around the world and found a troubling global pattern: regulators are struggling to keep pace with evolving technology and the savvy criminals who exploit it.
ICIJ and its partners also explored a surge in services where criminals can covertly cash out huge sums of cryptocurrency without ever touching the mainstream banking system.
Here are some of the stories journalists uncovered as part of The Coin Laundry.
Canadian crypto-to-cash services
In Canada, a new way to launder money has emerged. Shopfronts where people can convert cryptocurrency into cash have been cropping up in urban centers across the country. These businesses offer exchange services, often without asking customers to disclose their identities or the origin of their funds.
ICIJ media partners CBC/Radio Canada, the Toronto Star and La Presse collaborated on an investigation into these crypto-to-cash operations. The three outlets conducted a test transaction at one of the businesses, Ukraine-based 001k.exchange, which offers services in several major cities in North America.
Using a Telegram account, an undercover Toronto Star journalist posed as a prospective 001k customer and organized a transaction of 2,000 USDT, a cryptocurrency called tether that’s pegged to the U.S. dollar, to see how the process worked. 001k then provided a cryptocurrency address, which the reporter transferred the USDT to.
To pick up her cash, the reporter entered a midtown Toronto storefront and requested the payout without being asked to show any kind of identification — a violation of Canadian anti-money laundering laws, according to the outlets. Instead, she was asked to share the serial number on a Canadian $5 bill, which would be used to verify which customer she was.
In a video of the handover, the Toronto Star journalist can be seen entering a business offering remittance services on a busy street in Canada’s largest city by population. After examining the serial number on the bill, the teller is shown handing over a stack of cash without checking ID or asking questions.
The remittance business told CBC/Radio Canada, the Toronto Star and La Presse the employee in the video was conducting “his own business under the table.” 001k did not respond to questions from the outlets.
Binance curbs cooperation in Europe
The Coin Laundry examined how law enforcement and regulators have often had to rely on the cooperation of major cryptocurrency trading platforms known as exchanges to trace criminal proceeds on their platforms.
In Belgium, ICIJ media partners De Tijd and Knack found that Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and a central subject of ICIJ’s reporting, has stopped cooperating with the Belgian police and judicial authorities in criminal investigations.
In order to identify and freeze illicit transactions on their platforms, exchanges are generally expected to collaborate with law enforcement and take action when requested. A 2023 Europol report that detailed certain exchanges’ level of cooperation with European law enforcement agencies found that Binance was one of the most willing, ICIJ’s partners found.
But since April, Binance’s cooperation has faltered, De Tijd and Knack reported. According to several law enforcement sources in Belgium and other members of the European Union, Binance has stopped responding to all requests from police, public prosecutors and investigating judges when data is sought related to suspicious accounts.
“Binance has always cooperated well with the Belgian police. But suddenly, at a certain point, it refused to cooperate with the police,” Kevin Wiliquet, a crypto specialist with the Belgian federal police in Brussels, told De Tijd and Knack. “That’s really quite recent.”
Binance decided to transfer its Belgian customers to its Polish division in 2023 following heightened scrutiny from the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority, the outlets reported. Since the spring, the crypto behemoth has spread its data across numerous international jurisdictions — including in the Seychelles, a well-known secrecy haven — complicating Belgian law enforcement’s requests for user data.
Belgian magistrates have argued that Binance’s blockchain is borderless, according to De Tijd and Knack, meaning that requests for assistance or access to data should not need to be sent abroad and that Belgian law applies regardless of jurisdiction. But according to Wiliquet, Binance has simply stopped complying with information requests in Belgium and other EU member states.
De Tijd and Knack found that Binance was not alone — other major exchanges were also creating barriers when requests come from European law enforcement, their reporting showed.
In a statement to De Tijd and Knack, Binance said it “regularly cooperates with law enforcement agencies globally, including in Belgium, to support investigations and combat financial crime.”
South America scams
In Ecuador and Colombia, ICIJ partner CONNECTAS, along with Vistazo and El Espectador, detailed a multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency investment scheme involving a former television actress, a Christian church and an allegedly fraudulent online business school that promoted easy money for investors. Instead, thousands of people were reportedly saddled with debt.
The ADN Business School promised to help participants earn money quickly with questionable business tactics such as foreign exchange trading, sports betting and buying up cryptocurrency tokens, according to the outlets.
CONNECTAS and Vistazo determined that $176 million in at least 36 different cryptocurrencies was lost before prosecutors could freeze and seize them. The prosecutor’s office in Ecuador confirmed that it had successfully traced those losses to Binance, where the accused masterminds of the ADN Business School scheme had registered several wallets.
In the end, the alleged criminals moved the funds before prosecutors could take action, and only $500 worth of cryptocurrency has so far been recovered for the victims. Officials told the outlets that two major obstacles allowed the funds to slip out of reach: the lack of an institutional wallet address and the inability to move quickly to seize assets
In Uruguay, ICIJ media partner Búsqueda examined a separate criminal complaint against a former rugby player-turned-accused crypto fraudster who fled the country after allegedly stealing millions of dollars from wealthy investors.
The player, Gonzalo Campomar, and his alleged accomplice, Martín Cajal, were both charged with orchestrating the investment scheme that touted lucrative returns — 2% a month — from cryptocurrency investments, according to Búsqueda. Camponar left Uruguay in October 2024, shortly after the first legal complaints from disgruntled investors started to appear.
Búsquedas could not determine the total number of victims or the amount of money Campomar and Cajal allegedly stole but at least one law firm in a suburb of Montevideo reportedly received complaints from victims who ultimately did not pursue legal action due to the murky origin of some of their lost funds.
Cajal did not respond to Búsqueda’s request for comment. Campomar declined to comment. He told the news outlet that, when ready, he will give his version of events in court.