Bulgarian Police Raid Crypto Lender Nexo’s Sofia Office as Part of Money Laundering and Tax Crime Investigation

The office of Nexo, the crypto lender, was raided in Sofia by local police as part a probe into possible money laundering and tax evasion. According to a spokesperson for the chief prosecutor of Bulgaria, more than 300 police officers, national security agents, and prosecutors are involved in this operation. Police are looking into Nexo in London for money laundering, tax crimes and other offenses that involve unlicensed banking activities. Police searched 15 addresses in relation to Nexo.

Antoni Trenchev was Nexo’s cofounder. He confirmed the raid to Bloomberg News in a statement. He stated, “They are looking at a Bulgarian company that isn’t customer facing and only has OpEx functions (operational expenditures). It is a coordinated attack, as evident by the absurd claims.

Four months ago, eight US regulators issued cease-and–desist orders against Nexo. They claimed that Nexo was offering interest-earning account without registering investment products as securities. Nexo stated last month that it would be discontinuing products and services in the US due to “lack of regulatory clarity.”

Data from CoinMarketCap shows that Nexo’s native currency lost as much as 2.5% after news of the Bulgarian raid. Mileva reports that the company’s global platforms have generated a total turnover of $94Billion over the past five year.

Nexo released a Twitter statement in response to the raid: “Over time, we have turned away a lot business because Nexo never compromises with regard to our strict anti-money laundering or know-your-customer policies. This is how you build a sustainable enterprise, but we’ve known this for years.