Criminals laundering money via social media, crypto deals, says expert
Published on: Tue, Jul 15, 2025
By: Minderjeet Kaur, FMT Reporters Text Size: Jessica Chuah, vice-president of Growth (Asia Pacific) at Crystal Intelligence, speaking during a panel discussion at the International Conference on Governance and Integrity 2025. PUTRAJAYA: Regulators must 'up their game' to combat emerging money laundering methods involving unlicensed money changers and social media platforms, a regional financial crime expert said today. Jessica Chuah, vice-president of Growth (Asia Pacific) at Crystal Intelligence, said criminals were increasingly using Telegram, Facebook and Instagram to promote peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency trades that masked illegal fund flows.
Advertisement 'These days, people say 'I want to buy Bitcoin or Ethereum', but a lot of those funds are illegitimate,' she said on the sidelines of the International Conference on Governance and Integrity 2025. 'They'll look for unlicensed money changers, often advertised as P2P traders on Telegram or Facebook. The commission is slightly higher, but the appeal is that you can't trace them. 'It's like I want to sell to you, and you want to buy, (it looks) just like I'm selling to my mother,' she said. Chuah said these informal transactions were deliberately structured to avoid licensed crypto exchanges, which were bound by Malaysia's anti-money laundering (AML) laws. 'They will not go to the licensed ones. The moment they do, AML kicks in. So, they go to the silent players. Technically, it's quiet under the law. There's no record. That's the biggest threat. You're facilitating money laundering and disrupting the financial system,' she said. Corporates complicit in silence Also speaking at the conference, Joshua James, regional cybercrime and counter-fraud coordinator for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said businesses such as banks and telcos were ignoring fraud risks because enforcement could hurt their profits. 'Some of the companies are making a lot of money off of scams and fraud. And they don't have a strong incentive to be able to detect it,' he said. James said even strong local laws might not be enough, as international criminal networks operated beyond national borders. As such, he urged the country to lead by example in tightening domestic standards and demanding the same from its trade partners. 'That forces others to improve too,' he said. * Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel and Telegram for breaking news alerts and key updates! * Do you have access to the Daily Express e-paper and online exclusive news? Check out subscription plans available.
Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express's Telegram channel. Daily Express Malaysia
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
6 hours ago
- The Star
Seven arrest warrants issued in global swoop on suspected Russia-linked hackers
FILE PHOTO: Silhouette of mobile device user is seen next to a screen projection of binary code are seen in this picture illustration taken March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo ROME/BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany and Spain issued arrest warrants for seven suspected members of a pro-Russian hacking group accused of carrying out cyber attacks against critical infrastructure, arms makers, power companies and public authorities. The warrants resulted from an international operation involving law enforcement and judicial authorities including the U.S., France, Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland, German prosecutors and pan-European police agency Europol said in separate statements on Wednesday. German prosecutors said they had helped to coordinate the swoop on Tuesday in multiple countries in which 24 premises linked to the hacking group - which calls itself NoName057(16) - were searched, including one in Berlin and two in Bavaria in southeastern Germany. Germany issued six arrest warrants, five of them public, and Spain issued another. The NoName group had used the Telegram messaging app to enlist over 4,000 volunteers who made their systems available for swamping critical institutions' servers with so-called distributed denial of service attacks, the German prosecutors said. The premises searched included those linked to volunteers in the Telegram group, they said. In the past years the NoName collective, known for promoting Russian interests, has allegedly carried out successful cyberattacks in Ukraine and on government, infrastructure, banking, health services and telecom websites in European countries that have backed it against Russia. European authorities are increasingly concerned at the scale of the hybrid threats they say emanate from Russia, which is in the third year of its invasion of Western ally Ukraine. Those threats, which have included killings and alleged bomb plots against institutions and cargo aircraft, have largely been attributed to state actors. Russia has denied the accusation. In this case, prosecutors did not specifically link the suspects to the state. MEDIA ATTENTION "The aim of the attacks on German targets was to garner media attention and thereby influence political and social decision-making in Germany," prosecutors said in the statement. The prosecutors and Europol published names and pictures of five of the people they were seeking, all of them Russian citizens and presumed to be residing in Russia. A further German arrest warrant remains sealed. Prosecutors identified one of the Russian citizens as one of two leading figures in the group it was seeking. Europol said volunteers were recruited through Russian channels, chat groups, social media and messaging apps and that they often invited contacts from gaming and hacking forums. Italian authorities added in a separate statement that sympathisers were given lists of Western targets to hit and provided with the software needed to participate. They added that the organisation - which paid with cryptocurrencies - had a "central line of command and control in the Russian Federation". The group also ran its own botnet - a network of private computers infected with malware and controlled by hackers - of several hundred servers to amplify the impact, they said. Authorities in the Czech Republic, Finland, Lithuania and Poland contributed to the investigation, said Europol, which helped to coordinate it. (Reporting by Thomas Escritt in Berlin and Giulia Segreti in Rome; Editing by Miranda Murray and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Daily Express
7 hours ago
- Daily Express
KPDN seizes over 16,000 litres of diesel in Penampang raid
Published on: Wednesday, July 16, 2025 Published on: Wed, Jul 16, 2025 Text Size: Some of the Intermediate Bulk Container (IBC) tanks suspected to contain subsidised diesel. - Pic by KPDN KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah office of the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry (KPDN) uncovered the unauthorised storage of 16,180 litres of subsidised diesel during a raid at a premises in Kampung Sindaanan, Kobusak, Penampang on Tuesday (July 15). The evening raid led to the seizure of a four-wheel-drive Isuzu Trooper, equipment, and the diesel, all valued at RM53,527, with a local man in his 30s detained to assist investigations under the Control of Supplies Act 1961. Advertisement According to Sabah KPDN Director Shahril Nizam Shahidin, the operation followed a week of intelligence gathering and public tip-offs, and initial checks revealed the premises had no valid licence or approval to store controlled items. The case is being investigated under several provisions of the Control of Supplies Act and its regulations, which carry penalties of fines up to RM1 million or imprisonment for individuals, and up to RM2 million for companies. Shahril said the ministry will continue proactive checks and encourages the public to report suspected misuse of controlled goods, noting that 1,179 enforcement actions and over RM22 million in seizures have been recorded in Sabah so far this year. * Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel and Telegram for breaking news alerts and key updates! * Do you have access to the Daily Express e-paper and online exclusive news? Check out subscription plans available. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express's Telegram channel. Daily Express Malaysia
New Straits Times
7 hours ago
- New Straits Times
PM urges business-friendly reforms following Malaysia's ranking rise
PUTRAJAYA: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has urged all stakeholders to intensify efforts to enhance the ease of doing business in Malaysia, following the country's improved performance in the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking 2025, where it jumped 11 places to rank 23rd globally. Anwar described the result, the best in five years, as a clear sign of progress, but warned that sustained reforms remain necessary to maintain momentum. "I urge all relevant parties to continue strengthening their resolve and efforts to improve the ease of doing business in the country," he said in a Facebook post after chairing the National Physical Planning Council meeting. He also said that comprehensive reform in governance and public service delivery is important, highlighting the need for systems that are more efficient, transparent and uphold integrity. Anwar added that effective planning under the Town and Country Planning Act 1976, including reviewing state structure plans and land use proposals, is vital to ensure that development remains people-centric and investor-friendly. "These steps are crucial to safeguard national prosperity, boost investor confidence, and most importantly, ensure that the well-being of the people remains at the heart of development," he said.
