German investigators take down crypto money laundering site

BERLIN (AP) — German investigators say they have taken down a major online money laundering operation, seizing the Germany-based server infrastructure of a platform that dealt in ill-gotten cryptocurrency. Authorities said Wednesday that bitcoin currently worth about 44 million euros ($47 million) and roughly seven terabytes of data were secured as investigators took down the platform known as ChipMixer. They added that they worked closely with U.S. authorities and the European Union’s crime agency, Europol. German investigators said the platform had offered its services since mid-2017 and had accepted cryptocurrency — largely bitcoin — of criminal origin which was put through a “mixing” process to disguise its origin.