Crypto lender Nexo’s office in Sofia was raided by Bulgarian police on Thursday as part of an investigation into suspected money laundering and tax crimes.
(Bloomberg) — Crypto lender Nexo’s office in Sofia was raided by Bulgarian police on Thursday as part of an investigation into suspected money laundering and tax crimes.
More than 300 police officers, prosecutors and national security agents are taking part in the operation, Siyka Mileva, a spokeswoman for Bulgaria’s chief prosecutors, told reporters in Sofia. Authorities are investigating London-based Nexo on suspicion of money laundering, tax crimes and offenses involving unlicensed banking activities, she said, adding that the probe is so far limited to Bulgaria.
In total, police searched 15 addresses related to Nexo, Mileva said. Antoni Trenchev, Nexo’s co-founder and a former Bulgarian lawmaker, confirmed the raid in a message to Bloomberg News.
“They are inquiring about a Bulgarian entity of the group that is not customer facing but only has OpEx related functions,” he said, using the acronym for operational expenditures. “This is a coordinated attack as is evident from the absurd allegations.”
The Bulgarian investigation comes about four months after regulators in eight US states issued cease-and-desist orders against Nexo, alleging that the company was offering interest-earning accounts without registering the investment products as securities. Nexo said last month that it planned to phase out products and services offered in the US, citing “a lack of regulatory clarity.”
Nexo’s native token pared earlier gains to fall as much as 2.5% following news of the Bulgarian raid, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The company’s global platforms generated total turnover of $94 billion over the past five years, according to Mileva.
(Updates with background on US pullout in fifth paragraph.)
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