Europe is preparing to elevate its fight against sophisticated money-laundering networks, including those that rely on cryptocurrencies.
Europol is expected to name Giuseppe Lopez, a senior officer in Italy’s Guardia di Finanza, as the new head of its financial crime division. His likely appointment comes as criminal groups move funds across borders with increasing speed, often through digital assets that are difficult for national agencies to track.
Lopez, who has spent his career working on complex financial and economic crime, is poised to take charge of Europol’s European Financial and Economic Crime Centre (EFECC).
A spokesperson for the agency said in an email that the appointment remains pending.
Why Europe sees an urgent need for stronger oversight
European investigators are encountering a surge in cross-border fraud, sanction-evasion schemes, and organized criminal networks that operate beyond the reach of any single national authority. These cases often involve digital assets that move through fragmented exchanges and opaque ownership structures, leaving prosecutors struggling to keep pace.
Recent events outside Europe illustrate the scale of the challenge. In the United States, federal authorities confiscated roughly 15 billion dollars’ worth of Bitcoin tied to a sprawling cyber fraud network operating in Cambodia, a case that highlighted how aggressively criminals have embraced cryptocurrency to disguise illicit funds.
Investigators say volumes like these would have been unthinkable a decade ago.
What the EFECC actually does
The EFECC was created in 2020 to help EU member states trace financial flows, identify the true beneficiaries behind those transfers, and support the seizure of assets when they cross borders. Rather than functioning as a standalone enforcement body, it provides intelligence, coordination, and specialist support to national investigators who often face delays when evidence or assets travel across jurisdictions.
Catherine De Bolle, Executive Director of Europol said:
"The European Economic and Financial Crime Centre (EFECC) at Europol will strengthen Europol’s ability to support Member States’ and partner countries’ law enforcement authorities in fighting the criminals seeking to profit from economic hardship. EFECC will serve as a platform and toolbox for financial investigators across Europe."
One of the centre’s most significant undertakings began in April 2022 with Operation Oscar. That initiative was launched to assist countries in locating and freezing assets tied to individuals and companies sanctioned over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to public reporting, Operation Oscar has already helped freeze or seize more than €2 billion, a figure that illustrates the scale of international sanctions-evasion efforts.
Europol itself, headquartered in the Netherlands, serves as a hub for intelligence sharing among the EU’s 27 member states. Its remit includes organized crime, cybercrime, and counterterrorism, though money-laundering cases have become increasingly prominent in recent years as criminals experiment with new technologies and financial channels.
The U.S. case that shook global investigators
The United States recently brought charges in what officials described as the largest cryptocurrency forfeiture case in the country’s history. Prosecutors accused Chen Zhi, a Cambodian businessman originally from China and the head of Prince Holding Group, of orchestrating a cyber fraud scheme that relied on forced labor and psychological manipulation.
Court filings describe a system in which workers in Cambodia were compelled to lure victims into fraudulent online investment platforms. Once the targets saw their account balances grow numbers that were fabricated, the operation would drain the funds in what investigators call a “pig butchering” scheme.
The case led to the seizure of Bitcoin valued at about 15 billion dollars and has drawn intense scrutiny from international law-enforcement agencies.
Oleksii Shumak
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