As part of an international cooperation operation, the PJ located and detained one of the executive directors of a cryptocurrency (digital currency) financial services company in Cascais, and two other arrests were carried out simultaneously, one in the United States and the other in the United Kingdom.

“In the police operation led by the FBI, more than 25 million dollars (22.9 million euros) in cryptocurrencies were seized” and “several trading ‘bots’ [computer program that performs automatic tasks over the Internet] were deactivated, responsible for millions of dollars in money laundering transactions”, says the PJ in a statement.

According to the Portuguese police, “the ‘modus operandi’ used involved the creation of companies with false statements about cryptocurrencies (‘tokens’) and the execution of false negotiations to create the appearance that they would be good investments”, which attracts investors and buyers and led to an increase in the price of the currency.

“The suspects are also accused of having sold ‘tokens’ at artificially inflated prices, a fraud commonly known as ‘pump and dump’.”

According to a statement from the United States Attorney's Office for the State of Massachusetts, 18 individuals and entities have been charged with widespread fraud and manipulation in the cryptocurrency markets.

“The charges were revealed in Boston against the leaders of four cryptocurrency companies, four cryptocurrency financial services companies (known as ‘market makers’) and employees of these companies”, indicates the note released last week.