Crypto-trading married couple accused of €21m money laundering and organised crime
Tom Tuite
A husband and wife cryptocurrency trading team have been sent forward for trial accused of facilitating organised crime and an alleged €21 million international money laundering operation in Dublin.
The Chinese couple, Jixu Wang (35) and 34-year-old Ye Wang, are charged with possessing crime proceeds in a digital bank account between September 2023 and February 2024 and facilitating organised crime.
The couple had been denied bail and in custody since November 16th. They appeared again at Dublin District Court on Monday.
Judge Michele Finan noted that the Director of Public Prosecutions directed trial on indictment. Gardaí served books of evidence on the pair, who listened to the proceedings with the aid of an interpreter.
She granted a return-for-trial order, sending them forward to the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, where the case will be listed for mention on May 29th.
They have yet to enter pleas and were remanded in continuing custody.
Judge Finan warned them to tell prosecutors if they intend to use alibis in their defence.
Following a request by the defence, she directed that their books of evidence be translated into Mandarin, and she granted legal aid to include senior counsel representation.
An earlier bail hearing was told that the case follows a "complex" investigation by the Dublin East Garda economic crime unit, with cooperation from Europol and police forces in Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.
Officers arrested the unemployed couple on November 12th and searched their rented apartment on Avoca Road, Blackrock.
The court had heard that the pair previously ran a cryptocurrency trading business. They moved from the Philippines to Ireland in 2023 as part of an "immigration investment programme" after donating €400,000 to a charity, ICARE Housing CLG.
Detective Garda Steven Dunican and Barry Cusack raised concerns about flight risk or that they could dispose of evidence.
They had said officers from a Garda economic crime unit received information from German police about a suspected investment fraud.
A German citizen had €10,000 transferred from his bank to a Paytend digital bank account of Mr Wang.
Detective Garda Barry Cusack conducted inquiries with Paytend regarding Jixu Wang, and it was alleged the accused used his Chinese passport number on the account.
Garda Cusack identified 1,894 unusual transactions transferred into the account, valued at €5,043,705, from 622 different IBANs over five months between July 2nd and November 9th, 2023.
The detective claimed there were other unusual transactions between another Paytend account held by Ye Wang, who is a qualified accountant.
Her Paytend account allegedly received 733 transactions valued at just over €2.1 million from 321 different bank accounts from September 11th, 2023, and January 12th last year.
The court heard claims GPS (Global Positioning System) location had been obtained for login dates for both Paytend accounts, matching their address.
The detectives had claimed they were unemployed but had just over €7 million in accounts.
Gardaí, including the Criminal Assets Bureau, allegedly identified €14.7 million in cryptocurrency wallets, of which €4.4 million has been seized or frozen by the investigation team, the bail hearing was told.
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. Documents, phones and laptops have also been recovered.
It was alleged Mrs Wang helped create fake documents to set up "money mule" accounts, but she denied knowing it was part of a crime.
The detectives feared the couple, who have a young child, would leave the country if released on bail, as they had no family in Ireland or links to this jurisdiction.
