Larger Money Laundering Scheme Behind Binary Affiliates: PPATK
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21 March 2022 14:17 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) suspects that affiliates of illegal investment schemes such as Indra Kenz and Doni Salmanan, in the binary option criminal case, are money laundering "pawns" for certain groups.
Citing Tempo Magazine’s latest edition published on March 19, PPATK head Ivan Yustiavandana talked openly about the illegal investment firms to Tempo reporters.
“We suspect these affiliates are nominees of certain groups of people to conduct money laundering. We are aware of the patterns,” said Ivan.
PPATK claims to have monitored the activities and flow of funds of the aforementioned illegal trading affiliates. He said they would practice a scheme called “one to many, many to one” upon transferring money.
"We communicated this with law enforcers. From all the stages, we found the two people who showed their wealth the most and had the biggest transactions," he explained.
Ivan believes this case is only the tip of the iceberg and says police and PPATK continue to explore the case deeper. He warned the general public to beware of investment opportunities that seem illegal or similar practices.
Moreover, he explained that the two binary option affiliates have allegedly laundered their money through various ways and covering their numerous assets such as purchasing luxury goods, bank sayings, bitcoin purchases, up to gifting money to family and friends.
Two officials who participated in investigating the binary options case said that Indra was better at disguising his assets than Doni. Indra is believed to have hidden most of his money abroad. Meanwhile, Doni's transaction is more traditional. Its finances are easy to track because it only revolves within the country.
Indra was tracked to move 395 bitcoins from his account on his Indodax application. Referring to the price of Bitcoin on Saturday morning, March 19, 2022, the price of one Bitcoin is around IDR 599 million. This means that Indra's Bitcoin that has moved is worth Rp236.7 billion.
Law enforcers are now only able to find Indra Kenz’s trust wallet blockchain coins but believe its value is considered insignificant compared to the coins Indra managed to transfer, valued around Rp54 billion.
Tracing the coins gets challenging as Indra Kenz's cell phone and laptop are missing. The two most essential electronic devices that allegedly house codes to access their digital coins.
Read: Police, PPATK Track Down Binomo Owner in Caribbean Islands
ARRIJAL RACHMAN