Criminals exploited an EU-wide relaxation of onboarding procedures in the opening months of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year to open new bank accounts, move assets across borders and exchange them for cryptocurrency, German officials have revealed.
Cryptocurrency payments, massive withdrawals of cash, dual-use exports and last-minute transfers of ownership flourished like never before in Europe in 2022, suspicious transaction reports, or STRs, and other publicly available records of financial intelligence show.