A lawyer representing users in one of four class-action lawsuits against Spain-based crypto trading bot developer Arbistar is calling for authorities to take “forceful” action against its CEO. According to a report from Spanish news outlet elDiario.es, lawyer Carlos Aránguez said that the response from authorities in regards to Arbistar CEO Santi Fuentes, who allegedly scammed users out of millions, does not match the severity of his crime. Fuentes has been out on probation since his arrest in October for his role in the alleged billion-dollar crypto Ponzi scheme Arbistar ran this year. He was charged with fraud and money …

Law enforcement officials from around the world hav taken action against a major transnational money laundering operation involving cryptocurrency. On Oct. 15, Europol announced a successful operation across 16 countries that resulted in the arrest of 20 individuals suspected of working for the QQAAZZ criminal network. The organization is accused of laundering tens of millions of euros for top cybercriminals since 2016. The funds are allegedly transferred through international bank accounts, shell companies based in Poland and Bulgaria, and via cryptocurrency mixing services. Around 40 homes were searched across the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Latvia, and Bulgaria as part of …

Awaiting parliamentary approval in Spain, a fresh bill draft intends to cut out illegal tax dealings, as first reported by Cointelegraph’s Spanish branch. This could mean smaller business transactions as well as mandatory crypto-asset reporting, even for assets held or transacted internationally. The "Draft Law on Measures to Prevent and Combat Tax Fraud" recently received the green light from the Spanish Council of Ministers, Spain’s central governing entity, according to an Oct. 13 briefing from the country’s minister of finance, María Jesús Montero. When cryptocurrency began to take more of a global spotlight in 2017, some countries began to step …

Members of Spain’s lower house of Congress saw a surprise in their inboxes, the equivalent of 1 euro in crypto. As reported by Spanish news outfit ABC, the plan is spearheaded by Tutellus, a decentralized platform looking to tokenize education technology, and the Blockchain Observatory. The project aims to promote the use of cryptocurrencies in the country. All 350 members of Spain’s lower house, or the Congress of Deputies, received the equivalent of 1 euro in cryptocurrency in their emails. Miguel Caballero, Tutellus founder, said the goal is to raise awareness about the future role of cryptocurrencies in society: “We …

The team behind Arbistar, a crypto trading bot developer, announced that it would be shutting down a popular trading tool known as Community Bot. According to a press release published by Arbicorp, the company that runs Arbistar, the platform is not currently allowing deposits. All funds have been frozen, preventing users from withdrawing their money. Users are not even able to access crypto from funds that trade with other bots. This has led financial forensic firm, Tulip Research, to warn users that Arbicorp is actually a billion-dollar crypto Ponzi scheme — a claim they say they have made “many times”: …

Ransomware gang REvil stole over 800 GB of data from ADIF, the Spanish state-owned railway infrastructure manager, after a successful attack deployed on their systems. According to El Español, the authorship of the cyberattack belongs to the well-known ransomware group after they published a post on the official darknet website of REvil on July 22, who boasted of adding another victim. The cybercriminals claimed to have caught over 800 GB in data from the servers of ADIF, although it’s not confirmed how they managed to breach the security of the railway infrastructure manager based in Madrid. REvil didn’t disclose major …

Multinational banking giant Banco Santander and four Spanish banks have successfully finalized a proof-of-concept for payments using smart contracts. The PoC was coordinated with IberPay, the company that oversees the Spanish Payment System. Trial confirms blockchain’s feasibility for payments In a statement on July 15, IberPay said the PoC had “confirmed the feasibility of applying blockchain technology to the field of payments" and its successful connection to the national payment system. Using smart contracts automates the execution and settlement of payments once certain pre-conditions are met. Alongside IberPay and Banco Santander, the four banks involved were Banco Sabadell — Spain’s …

The Spanish Civil Guard has taken down a dark-web child porn ring that used cryptocurrency transactions to pay for content. Multiple individuals across the country were ultimately arrested. According to the Spanish Civil Guard, the “Jekyll” operation captured three people involved in the “Welcome 2 Video” platform, thanks in part to additional support from United States authorities. Bitcoin and “anonymous tokens” Users would send Bitcoin (BTC) and “other tokens or anonymous money transfer services” to access videos on the dark web site. Members were also rewarded for uploading their own videos and photos to the platform. Analysis of thousands of …

The Bitcoin name and logo has been trademarked in Spain with the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office. This process was completed by Ignacio Rubio Menéndez, a compliance expert and lawyer specializing in business law. Cointelegraph en Español spoke directly with Menéndez’s client, who is choosing to remain anonymous for now. This person explained: "I now have the logo and the word ‘bitcoin’ registered at the national level in the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office. Anyone can access the records, as they are published daily and for all audiences." When asked why he took the initiative to protect this intellectual property …

In a recent investigation, European police busted a major illegal online streaming business that had reportedly been running for the past five years. Bloomberg reported that the police conducted 15 house searches, arresting 11 people and successfully taking down 50 servers across nine countries. The European law enforcement agency Europol claimed to have found cryptocurrencies, property, jewelry, luxury cars, and cash worth $5.4 million from the business owners. An additional $1.25 million were frozen in several bank accounts, Europol stated. Making $17 million in five years The streaming ring, which mainly operated out of Spain, was a highly organized illegal …

On June 3, Spain-based telecommunications conglomerate, Telefónica, released a free tool to recover data encrypted by the VCryptor ransomware. The tool, VCrypt Decryptor, was created as part of an international initiative titled “No More Ransomware”. This alliance was established by McAfee, Europol, Politie, and Kaspersky. It is one of several tools that aim to decrypt almost 134 types of ransomware. VCrypt’s attack method According to ElevenPaths, Telefonica’s specialized cybersecurity unit, VCryptor creates a password-protected .zip file in which it stores all encrypted data. It then generates new files with the extension “.vcrypt,” to replace the original files. The ransomware then …

Experts predict that Bitcoin ATMs (BATMs) will face stricter regulations worldwide, with countries including Canada and Germany already moving to tighten up anti-money laundering requirements. A June 2 report from CipherTrace estimates that 74% of transactions made from U.S.-based Bitcoin ATMs were sent out of the country during 2019. The report also found that 88% of funds sent from U.S. crypto ATMs to virtual currency exchanges were transferred overseas. The figure has seen exponential growth over recent years, doubling annually since 2017. In an interview with Law360, CipherTrace CTO John Jeffries predicted that BATMs will become “a greater point of …