Israel arrests suspects in crypto fraud against French treasury

Several suspects have been detained in Israel in connection with a multi-million dollar cryptocurrency money laundering scheme to defraud the French treasury, police said on Monday.

Investigation focused “on the suspicion of a large-scale fraud against the state treasury in France that was carried out from Israel,” an Israeli police statement said.

It allegedly involved the theft of millions of shekels “and the laundering of the funds by converting them to cryptocurrency,” the statement said.

Three people were arrested and others were detained for questioning on suspicion of money laundering and tax offences, according to the police, who did not detail the suspects’ identities.

The investigation was conducted in cooperation with Europe’s law enforcement agency Europol, French police, the Israeli Tax Authority, and the Cyber Unit at the Office of the State Attorney in Israel.