Bulgarian police raid offices of cryptocurrency lender Nexo

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Bulgarian law enforcement officersare investigating crypto lender Nexo for alleged failure to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer procedures (KYC)

As the press secretary of the generalBulgarian Prosecutor Siika Mileva, the searches were carried out as part of an investigation into information about the use of the Nexo platform by organized crime, money laundering, tax violations, fraud and the provision of banking services without a license. Investigators have evidence that a Nexo client who used the platform to transfer cryptocurrencies was a terrorist financier, law enforcement officials said. The persons under investigation are citizens of Bulgaria.

More than 300 people are involved in the investigationlaw enforcement officials, including police, gendarmerie, investigators and the Bulgarian State National Security Agency. Pre-trial proceedings were under the control of the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office. Mileva noted that searches and interrogations are still ongoing, and any charges will be brought after analysis of the collected data.

Nexo management commented on the situation in
series of tweets stating that the platform would nevercompromises on compliance with AML and KYC rules. The Nexo team said it uses Chainalysis tools to check for suspicious transactions, but fiat currencies are much more complex and require different methods. According to Nexo's tweet, the platform is willing to cooperate with regulators, but many of them take a "fist first, questions later" approach, which is similar to racketeering in corrupt countries.

Last year, regulators in eight US statesfiled lawsuits against Nexo, demanding that the crypto lender stop promoting interest-bearing cryptocurrency products that are subject to securities laws. In December, after claims from regulatory authorities, the Nexo service announced its withdrawal from the American market.