Court told married couple had €21m transferred through online and crypto accounts

Chinese couple charged with possessing crime proceeds in a digital bank account between September 2023 and February were denied bail

The pair previously ran a cryptocurrency trading business and moved from the Philippines to Ireland last year.

A married couple were arrested over an international money laundering operation with €21m allegedly transferred through online banks and cryptocurrency accounts, a court has heard.

Jixu Wang (35) and Ye Wang (34), who are from China, were charged with possessing crime proceeds in a digital bank account between September 2023 and February this year. They were denied bail.

Dublin District Court heard that following a "complex" investigation by the Dublin East Garda economic crime unit, with cooperation from Europol, and police in Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK, officers arrested the unemployed couple on Tuesday. They searched their apartment on Avoca Road, Blackrock.

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 a charity, ICARE Housing CLG.

The couple faced bail objections during separate hearings before Judge John Campbell on Saturday.

Detective Garda Steven Dunican and Barry Cusack voiced concerns about flight risk or that they could dispose of evidence.

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 DPP will authorise further more serious charges.

Suspected investment fraud

The detectives told Judge Campbell that on March 9, officers from a Garda economic crime unit received information 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.

Detective Garda 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" that had been transferred into the account to the value of €5,043,705 received from 622 different Ibans [International Bank Account Numbers] over a five-month period between July 2 and November 9 last year.

It was claimed that there were other unusual transactions between another Paytend account held by his wife, Ye Wang, who is a qualified accountant. 

Her Paytend account allegedly received 733 transactions valued at just over €2.1m from 321 different bank accounts between September 11, 2023, and January 12 this year.

The court heard that GPS locations has been obtained for login dates for both Paytend accounts, matching their address.

Unemployed couple had over €7m in accounts

The detectives said both are unemployed but there was just over €7m in their accounts.

Gardaí including the Criminal Assets Bureau identified €14.7m in cryptocurrency wallets, of which €4.4m 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. 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.

Judge Campbell said they had the presumption of innocence.

However, he  took into account the evidence and reasons for bail objections cited by Garda witnesses and the couple's lack of assets here.

He described their ties to Ireland as "tenuous".

They were remanded into prison custody to appear again on Wednesday.