Ireland's Crime Groups Use High-Security Safes for Cryptocurrency Storage
The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) in Ireland has discovered that organized crime groups are storing their private cryptocurrency keys and seed phrases in safes rented from treasuries, which offer high-security storage services to individuals and companies. These treasuries provide biometric access, robust security measures, and discreet entry.
The discovery was made through the bureau's own investigations, and it has informed the government's Financial Intelligence Unit about this practice. This is not an isolated incident in Ireland; similar treasuries operate in Hungary as well, offering secure storage solutions for valuable items without requiring a bank account.
In response to the European Union's upcoming anti-money laundering regulations, which prohibit transactions exceeding €10,000 and require businesses to identify customers who spend more than €3,000 in cash, Ireland has been preparing its financial institutions. The country has also published its first national anti-money laundering strategy, targeting unregulated cryptocurrency wallets among other measures.