Bitcoin

Criminals have been increasingly using digital currencies such as Bitcoin to launder money, dodge taxes and fund terrorism. Ministers last April launched a crackdown on the 'emerging threat', with police, law enforcement and the HMRC allowed to freeze suspicious cryptocurrency wallets. Under the rules designed to deprive criminals of ill-gotten gains, suspicious crypto wallets can be frozen for up to three years. Frozen stashes can then be seized, if a court is satisfied the funds were gained or being used illicitly. MailOnline's analysis of court documents published over the last six months found the biggest freezing order was for £1.5m worth of crypto. It was kept in a single wallet hosted by US-based exchange website Coinbase, with the actual owner remaining a mystery. Chinese takeaway worker Jian Wen (right) had Bitcoin now worth £4.5bn seized last year, in the biggest crypto bust in history. The 42-year-old drove a E-Class Mercedes-Benz, indulged in £30,000 Harrods shopping sprees and enrolled her son at prestigious £6,000-a-term Heathside Preparatory School near her £5 million home....read