BITCOIN

Hexane

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60369879

HMRC seizes NFT for first time in £1.4m fraud case

HMRC said the suspects in its fraud case were alleged to have used "sophisticated methods" to try to hide their identities including false and stolen identities, false addresses, pre-paid unregistered mobile phones, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), false invoices and pretending to engage in legitimate business activities.

Nick Sharp, deputy director economic crime, said the first seizure of an NFT "serves as a warning to anyone who thinks they can use crypto assets to hide money from HMRC".

"We constantly adapt to new technology to ensure we keep pace with how criminals and evaders look to conceal their assets."

HMRC said it had secured a court order to detain the seized crypto assets worth about £5,000 and three digital artwork NFTs, which have not been valued, while its investigation continues.

A man living in or near Gibraltar with a Scottish accent, said "This has nothing to do with Bitcoin, you are so naive. My desk has dealt with millions in the last few seconds, you hae no idea what you're talking about"

Scottex99

Haha, very good. Another lovely piece for my scrapbook.

That's actually interesting that HMRC even know what an NFT is. And is it seized or is there a court order for it to be seized? Unless the person handed over their keys to their wallet, it's "un-seizable"

Malthusian

Like many sovereign citizen bros before them, they will find the NFTs become seizable very quickly when the choice is between either handing them over or extra jail time.

Reading between the lines, the NFTs are probably worthless anyway so HMRC may not bother doing anything else. (The article says they "haven't been valued".) They only had £5k in crypto plus the three NFTs. Mostly HMRC are using the word "NFT" to score some free publicity.

That's actually interesting that HMRC even know what an NFT is.

Imagine people who deal with financial crime day in day out knowing about a popular vehicle for money laundering. That's like being surprised that your local nick's traffic department knows what a car is.

Scottex99

That's actually interesting that HMRC even know what an NFT is.

Imagine people who deal with financial crime day in day out knowing about a popular vehicle for money laundering. That's like being surprised that your local nick's traffic department knows what a car is.

Yeah obvs, but the average HMRC worker (I assume) isn't some kind of AML wizz and keeping up to date with the latest advancements in blockchain and digital assets. Plus I wouldn't say NFTs are particularly popular for money laundering given that the average Joe only heard about them within the last 6 months

Malthusian

Scottex99 said:

Yeah obvs, but the average HMRC worker (I assume) isn't some kind of AML wizz and keeping up to date with the latest advancements in blockchain and digital assets.

They're not experts in property, gold mining, fine art or supercars either, but that's not an obstacle to HMRC seizing any of those things if they have you in chokey for tax fraud. Contrary to the Wolf of Wall Street fantasies of sovereign citizen bros.

And the lawyers working in the tax fraud squad aren't the average HMRC worker.

For £1,666 (£5,000 ÷ three individuals) nobody is going to play Count of Monte Crypto. If you bought your freedom you could quickly earn the money back flipping burgers as a free man.

Scottex99

Wen Binance, wen moon

User232002

HMRC miles behind the curve. Outgunned and outmatched.

Whole article reads like a "We promise we can catch you, so please don't try to do anything because we are totally totally on it even though we can't provide any evidence of what we are honestly and very definitely capable of."

Zola.

The main way people get caught is when sales are converted to cash in the bank, and a little alert is sent to HMRC from the bank.. 

Zola.

https://blockworks.co/fidelity-international-bitcoin-etp-hits-europe/

Fidelity International is launching the Fidelity Physical Bitcoin ETP (FBTC) for its professional and institutional clients in Europe.

Zola.

https://www.cityam.com/warren-buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-dumps-visa-and-mastercard-stock-and-buys-1bn-in-bitcoin-fintech-nubank/

Watch what they do, not what they say.