A French man was sentenced to 8 years for laundering over 470 million dollars using shell companies and cryptocurrency accounts
French national Maximilien de Hoop Cartier was sentenced to 8 years in prison by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for operating an unlicensed over-the-counter (OTC) cryptocurrency exchange, assisting in the transfer of over $470 million in drug trafficking and other criminal proceeds through the U.S. financial system to Colombia and other locations, and was ordered to forfeit approximately $2.362 million in commissions and related shell company accounts.
Since 2018, Cartier converted cryptocurrency into fiat currency through more than a dozen U.S. shell companies, falsely claiming to banks that he was engaged in software development and forging contracts and invoices to cover the source of funds. After law enforcement agencies seized his accounts in 2021, he still submitted forged documents, resulting in some funds being returned. In October 2025, Cartier pleaded guilty to two charges of operating an unlicensed remittance business and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
You may also like
A valuation of 8 billion dollars, doubling in 8 months! What makes the crypto-friendly bank Erebor Bank stand out?
340 billion valuation: Li Yanhong's largest IPO, a seat in Kunlunxin's shares is hard to come by
Stablecoins are the "royalists" of the crypto world: Open USD brings the old currency system into play
Semiconductor stocks plummet, yet Anthropic wants to create a 2nm chip
Where is Zhao Changpeng's billion-dollar investment going? YZi Labs' investment landscape fully revealed
Ethereum Foundation Report: A Basic Guide to Ethereum for Governments and Financial Institutions
A pre-announced harvesting case: After the cryptocurrency price dropped by 99%, the public chain Saga exited to transform into AI
When American giants collectively "defect" from Chinese AI models
BIS Report Compliance Observation: The Real Risks of Stablecoins, Not Just "Depegging"
Portugal 2-1 Croatia: Ronaldo's 20-Year Knockout-Stage Drought Ends With a Debt Finally Collected
Portugal beat Croatia 2-1 in the 2026 global football championship's knockout rounds as Ronaldo scored his first-ever knockout-stage goal, Gonçalo Ramos struck a stoppage-time winner, and VAR ruled out a late equalizer for offside.
