Security News > 2020 > October > One alleged Dridex money-launderer set for US extradition, beams UK's National Crime Agency

Britain's National Crime Agency arrested six men in London on suspicion of laundering "Tens of millions" for the Trickbot and Dridex banking malware gangs, the not-quite-police agency declared today.

The six, a mixture of British and Eastern European citizens, were arrested around a year ago, said the NCA as EU police agency Europol jointly boasted of a further 14 arrests in the political bloc, the US and Australia.

"The crime group is believed to have laundered the money through numerous corporate and personal bank accounts, which they had opened with financial institutions throughout the world. It was often converted into cryptocurrency to hide its original source," said the NCA, as it labelled the gang the "QQAAZZ" network.

Trickbot has been labelled by the NCA as "One of the primary causes of fraud related losses to the UK banking sector", with one UK bank reporting losses attributable to Trickbot worth over £2m in a 12-month period.

Richard Winstanley from the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit said in a statement: "Financially motivated cyber criminals rely heavily on the services of money launderers like the QQAAZZ network to access the funds stolen from victims. Targeting such networks is just one of the ways the NCA works to cause disruption to the organised cyber criminals who have the most significant impact on the UK.".

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/10/15/dridex_money_laundering_allegations_nca/