Binance Assisted British Police in Investigating $50 Million Fraud

Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, aided the Cyber Crime Unit of the UK’s Metropolitan Police in investigating a cybercriminal involved in the theft of millions of pounds, the company revealed in a blog post on 26 September.

Samuel Lim, Binance’s Chief Compliance Officer, said in the announcement that the exchange helped the British police in investigating a Bulgarian suspect, who developed and sold phishing scripts that targeted customers of at least 53 different services. The scripts were used by other criminals to get access to personal information of users, which was then allegedly sold on the dark web. Lim further added:

“Binance has always prioritized security and we are always working to protect our customers from bad actors such as this individual. Staying true to that, we are constantly refining and advancing the technology that we use to keep our platform secure, which helps to ensure that we continue to set and maintain industry standards.”

The blog post further stated that around 500,000 people were affected, most targeted by emails. It was estimated that the cybercriminals who used the Bulgarian’s phishing scripts raked in around £41.6 million British Pounds, or just over $51 million. It was also mentioned that the Bulgarian was recently extradited to the U.K., where he stood trial, and pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud.

Even though the blog post did not specify how exactly the exchange helped the British police, a 20 September report from The Register outlined that the Bulgarian was guilty of “acquiring criminal property, namely 1.5257417 Bitcoin”.