Organized crime in Latin america would be financing with cryptocurrencies as bitcoin, according to a report published by the firm of intelligence and security Intsights, which indicates that criminals are using platforms like Localbitcoins, Paxful or Ccoins to launder large amounts of money and plan scams.In the document entitled “The dark side of Latin America: cryptocurrencies, cartels, carding, and the rise of cyber-crime”, it is stated that very few countries have established laws to counter money laundering, which according to researchers is generating that involved use of sharing sites is not regulated or with weak protocols of Know your Customer (KYC) and anti-Money Laundering (AML).”The financing of the threats is evolving in Latin America as organized crime groups are turning to the cryptocurrencies to launder large amounts of money and dive into the web dark to find and hire hackers. The Latin american countries top the list of the worst nations for money laundering in the world”, the report states.In connection with the transactions in Localbitcoins, Paxful, and Ccoins the research ensures that criminals prefer this kind of platform P2P before using the services of the houses of change of cryptocurrencies centralized. The reason is that these exchanges are “generally lacking in programs AML and performed little or no due diligence on KYC”.Another method would be using criminals for money-laundering is through the mixing of cryptocurrencies. This is a service for the commission they offer various platforms on which the funds potentially detectable are combined with others to make it more difficult to determine its origin.A fact that reveals Intsights is that 97% of the cryptocurrencies that are bleached ends in countries that have weak regulations, KYC/AML and mentions that the nations of Latin america topping this list. In addition, it identified that there is a growing threat to the union of the drug cartels, and hackers.
New guidelines
The study of Intsights covers all of the 2019 a year in which precisely criptobolsas as Localbitcoins announced it would establish new security mechanisms for identity verification of their users. In February last year, the exchange indicated that it would comply with european legislations, such as the 5th Directive against money laundering.In the case of Paxful, in April of 2019, the company established protocols KYC for operators that use its exchange platform. In addition, the service of Ccoins also requires KYC/AML to operate, although in this case the volumes of trade are significantly lower than the cases of Localbitcoins and Paxful.Intsights spent the highlighter on cyber-security in Latin america, but it does not have offices in the region. For this research was a collaborative work with companies of cybersecurity CipherTrace and Scitum. The method used for the research included the analysis of databases restricted, sources of the web dark and searches for conversations in messaging platforms used by hackers.