Australian Police Arrests Bitcoin Entrepreneurs For Drug Trafficking

CCN today reported that two crypto entrepreneurs, Steen McBeth and Sam Karagiozis, may be using their crypto startup just as a front for an international drug-dealing operation. According to the Daily Mail the guys “drove Lamborghinis and rubbed shoulders with sports stars allegedly used a Bitcoin business as a front for an international drug syndicate.”

The two men have been arrested with various charges related to drug trafficking, reported the Daily Mail. Their mode of operation: they acquired the drugs on various darknet sites and then shipped them to Australia with bitcoins as their favorite means of payment, according to the police.

Sam Karagiozis, 27, and his partner Steen McBeth, 28, are both facing life sentences as the alleged masterminds of a drug ring importing cocaine. The ‘self-made’ millionaires co-founded Australian-based crypto startup Auscoin in 2017. By the end of 2017, Karagiozis publicly communicated the target of 1,200 ATMs across the country.

Cointed And Austria

Unfortunately, it has to be said that Bitcoins were often used for illegal activities such as drug smuggling and money laundering. Crypto ATMs should be ideally suited for this. The meanwhile collapsed Austrian crypto startup Cointed has also developed into a criminal case. Like the Australien Auscoin the Austrian Cointed has also focused on the installation and operation of Crypto ATMs. According to reports from customers and authorities, the Cointed Crypto ATMs were also used for illegal business and money laundering. The startup collapsed in Q2 2018 and filed for bankruptcy.

Founder Christopher Rieder has distanced himself from the investigations by fleeing to Turkey. There, his fiancee Patricia “Tricia” N, was arrested for drug trafficking in September 2018. Following the collapse of Cointed, the business partners of Rieder, Charli Aho, and Daniil Orlov are allegedly also outside the EU’s sphere of access in Ukraine and Syria.

Besides its founders’ drug abuse, Cointed has left hundreds of damaged investors and customers behind. Currently, the criminal investigation department is investigating in Austria.