The popularity of NFT might cause more money laundering crime

Mr. Xavier Chan, the Founder and Managing Partner of CWK Global, was interviewed by “Hong Kong Economic Journal” about his views towards the recent money laundering issues. Mr. Xavier Chan found that there are more criminals who are using NFT as the platform for money laundering these days, and he expected this might create a new trend of money laundering.

Mr. Xavier Chan explained that using virtual banks as the means of money laundering includes 3 main steps. The first step, criminals need to bank in the money. Then on the second step, they will need to transfer the money to other foreign banks, in order to make the tracing more difficult. The final step will be using the money to buy luxury goods, then use legit methods to get the money back. Criminals often target students and housewives to help them to do money laundering. As they might believe creating a bank account, receiving money then transferring are easy steps to earn money, but they do not know they became part of the money laundering crime. Meanwhile, there are more criminals using NFT platforms to do money laundering, as these platforms are not using real name authentication, making the tracing of crime more difficult. 

Mr. Xavier Chan said citizens should not lend their bank accounts and personal information to anyone to avoid falling into the trap. The highest penalty of money laundering crime will be 14 years and 5 million Hong Kong dollars. 

For more details, please read the article (only available in Chinese).

The popularity of NFT might cause more money laundering crime