Argentinian Authorities Use Blockchain Intelligence to Disrupt Cybercriminal Groups

In the last week, the Attorney General's Office of the Province of Buenos Aires dismantled two separate cybercriminal groups. One case was led by the Departamento de Ciberdelitos (“Cybercrime Department”) and the other by the Unidad Fiscal Especializada en Ciberdelincuencia (UFEIC). TRM Labs is proud to support Argentinian law enforcement as it identifies and mitigates the illicit use of cryptocurrencies. 

The first case, led by the Cybercrime Department, involved a cross-border cybercrime syndicate that used malware to defraud citizens throughout Argentina and Latin America. The case was supported by over 500 individuals within the Attorney General’s office as well as the Ministry of National Security, National Department of Investigations against Organized Crime, Argentine Federal Police, and Interpol. 

The subjects used malware to infect victim computers, stole over $1,500,000 worth of assets, then converted large sums into cryptocurrency in order to launder the proceeds. The international investigation featured over sixty raids, more than thirty arrests, and the seizure of over $170,000 worth of illicit crypto. 

As shown in the graph below, the investigative team used TRM Labs Graph Visualizer to trace fraud proceeds from international and Argentina-based VASPS, through unhosted addresses, to cash out points at international VASPS. 

The lead prosecutor, Rafael García Borda, explained that “without the excellent blockchain intelligence tool it would have been very difficult to advance this successful operation!”

The second case, led by the UFEIC, was related to a false investment scheme. The investigation and prosecution resulted in the largest cryptocurrency seizure in Argentine history. According to Alejandro Musso of UFEIC, the investigative team of Buenos Aires Police with UFEIC tracked over fifty cryptocurrency wallets across five different blockchains. 

According to Musso, “the traceability during the investigation was made thanks to the contribution of the powerful forensic tool TRM Labs, which allowed us to skip the decentralized wallets that obfuscated the path of that flow of assets to the wallets of final destination.”(as translated)