UK Seizes First NFTs in $2 Million Fraud Crackdown — Arrests 3 People – Regulation Bitcoin News

The U.K.’s. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has made its first non-fungible token (NFT) seizure. British authorities also confiscated some cryptocurrency and made three arrests in relation to a fraud case that involved 250 companies. “Our first seizure of a non-fungible token serves as a warning to anyone who thinks they can use crypto assets to hide money from HMRC.”

UK Tax Authority seizes NFTs, Crypto Assets

Britain’s HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) said Monday that it has seized three non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrency worth about 5,000 pounds in an ongoing fraud investigation. Three other people were also arrested.

The U.K.’s tax, payments, and customs authority added that it was HMRC’s first-ever NFT seizure. They have not yet been assessed.

250 fake businesses are accused in ongoing fraud involving VAT (value-added tax) repayments.

According to HMRC, the suspects tried to collect more VAT from their debt than was actually due. HMRC said they used “sophisticated methods” to hide their identities, including using stolen IDs, fake addresses, prepaid unregistered mobile phones, virtual private networks (VPNs), and phony invoices. They pretended that they were engaging in legitimate business activities.

Nick Sharp (deputy director, Economic Crime in Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC), commented:

The first non-fungible token was seized to warn anyone thinking they might be able to use crypto assets to conceal money from HMRC.

“We constantly adapt to new technology to ensure we keep pace with how criminals and evaders look to conceal their assets,” he opined.

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Kevin Helms

Kevin is a graduate of Austrian Economics. He discovered Bitcoin in 2011, and has been an advocate ever since. His main interests are in Bitcoin security, open source systems, network effects, cryptography, and intersections between economics, cryptography, and Cryptography.