Married couple charged over alleged €21m international money laundering operation

A man and a woman charged in connection with an international money laundering operation, in which €21 million was allegedly transferred through online bank and cryptocurrency accounts, have been denied bail.
Jixu Wang (35) and his wife Ye Wang (34), who are from China but living on Avoca Road, Blackrock, were charged with possessing crime proceeds in digital bank accounts between September of last year and February of this year.
Dublin District Court heard a “complex” investigation by the Garda’s Dublin East economic crime unit, with co-operation from Europol and police in Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, led to the couple being arrested on Tuesday.
The pair previously ran a cryptocurrency trading business and moved from the Philippines to Ireland last year as part of an immigration investment programme after donating €400,000 to ICARE Housing CLG, the court heard.
Gardaí objected to bail, voicing concerns about flight risk or that the couple, who have a young child, could dispose of evidence, during separate hearings before Judge John Campbell on Saturday.
The alleged offences are under the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act, which can carry a 14-year sentence, but gardaí expect the Director of Public Prosecutions will seek more serious charges.
The court heard that officers from a Garda economic crime unit received information on March 9th last from German police about a suspected investment fraud. A German national had €10,000 transferred from his bank to a Paytend digital bank account of Mr Wang.
Det Garda Barry Cusack conducted inquiries with Paytend regarding Mr Wang. He identified 1,894 “unusual transactions” that had been transferred into the account to the value of more than €5 million from 622 different IBANs between July 2nd and November 9th of last year.
It was claimed that further unusual transactions involved another Paytend account held by Ms Wang, a qualified accountant, which allegedly received 733 transactions valued at some €2.1 million from 321 different bank accounts from September 11th last year and January 12th this year.
The detectives outlined how the two accused were unemployed but there was just more than €7 million in their accounts. Gardaí identified €14.7 million in cryptocurrency wallets, of which €4.4 million has been seized or frozen by the investigation team.
Their apartment was searched – resulting in an alleged seizure of €20,000, gold coins and five envelopes with “seed words” to access a cryptocurrency wallet.
The couple, who listened to the proceedings with the aid of a Mandarin interpreter, have yet to indicate a plea.
Judge Campbell said they had the presumption of innocence but noted Garda concerns about bail and described the couple’s ties to Ireland as “tenuous”. He remanded them into prison custody to appear in court again on Wednesday.