U.S. authorities seized funds belonging to Deltec, a Bahamian bank that serves crypto firms, in June amid an investigation into international money laundering, wire and bank fraud, federal documents show.
The documents, unsealed in federal court on Monday, reveal the Secret Service executed several seizure warrants to confiscate funds from the bank’s U.S. accounts amid their investigation into “international criminal money laundering syndicates operating cryptocurrency investment and other wire fraud scams.” The seizures occurred on June 13 and June 15.
“Victims were fraudulently induced to transfer money into shell companies, at which point the money underwent a series of transfers, generally ending overseas, designed to conceal the source, nature, ownership, and control of the funds,” the affidavit reads.
The Secret Service received authorization to confiscate up to nearly $105 million from the custodial accounts opened with Mitsubishi UFJ Trust in New York by Deltec on behalf of its corporate clients.The total amount of funds officials ultimately seized remains unclear.
Neither the Secret Service nor Deltec Bank immediately responded to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
