Authorities within the Netherlands have arrested a developer that’s suspected to be concerned in cash laundering by way of the crypto mixing service Twister Money.

The Fiscal Data and Investigation Service (FIOD), an company within the Netherlands chargeable for investigating monetary crimes, formally announced on Friday an arrest of a 29-year-old man in Amsterdam.

The person has allegedly been concerned in facilitating prison monetary flows and cash laundering by way of the decentralized Ethereum mixer Twister Money, the authority mentioned.

The FIOD identified that it doesn’t rule out a number of arrests within the case, noting that its Monetary Superior Cyber Group (FACT) launched a prison investigation in opposition to Twister Money in June 2022.

In keeping with the FACT, Twister Money has allegedly been used to hide large-scale prison cash flows, together with crypto hacks and scams.

“These included funds stolen by way of hacks by a gaggle believed to be related to North Korea. Twister Money began in 2019, and in keeping with FACT it has since achieved a turnover of not less than seven billion {dollars},” the announcement notes.

The information comes shortly after the USA Treasury Division positioned dozens of Twister Money addresses within the listing of sanctions by the Workplace of International Asset Management (OFAC) on Aug. 8. Main cryptocurrency agency and the USD Coin issuer, Circle, subsequently froze 75,000 USDC linked to OFAC-sanctioned addresses.

Because of sanctions, it grew to become unlawful for any U.S. individuals and entities to work together with Twister Money’s sensible contract addresses. Penalties for willful noncompliance can vary from fines of $50,000 to $10,000,000 and 10 to 30 years imprisonment.

Twister Money co-founder studies being kicked off GitHub as trade reacts to sanctions

Primarily based on Ethereum, Twister Money is a device permitting customers to obfuscate their crypto transactions to guard their anonymity by scrambling info trails on the blockchain. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin claimed that he used Twister Money to donate funds to Ukraine to guard the monetary privateness of the recipients.