Two Japanese residents, Takayoshi Doi and Masaki Kitamoto were arrested in Tokyo for the purchase of NEM from the Coincheck hack. Local media reported that one of them, Kitamoto, had already acknowledged his guilt. Apparently, he bought nearly $ 19 million worth of cryptocurrencies.
The two individuals, a doctor and an executive director, would have purchased the cryptocurrencies, knowing they came from a crime. The Japanese authorities claimed that the NEM purchase was made during February and March 2018. Tokyo police accused him of participating in an organized criminal group.
NEM mosaic tracker protocol was closed in March 2018
In the last week of January 2018, the Coincheck trading platform in Japan was compromised. The attackers managed to steal over 523 million NEM (XEM) cryptocurrencies, which were worth about $ 530 million at the time.
Initially, the NEM Foundation claimed that all coins were tracked through the NEM mosaic tracker protocol. However, the organization decided to deactivate the system on March 21, 2018, as it proved to be useless.
Until the first week of March 2018, analysts noted that over 40% of Coincheck’s stolen funds were laundered. By the end of the same month, a Nikkei report detailed that almost all stolen XEMs were washed through the deep web. At that time, XEM sellers on the dark web sold cryptocurrencies at a reduced price by 20% compared to the value on the spot market. Most transactions involved the sale of NEM for BTC and LTC.
According to prosecutors, more than 100 investigators were involved in investigating the Coincheck hack.
The two men arrested Wednesday in Tokyo are the first arrested for their alleged involvement in the incident.
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