Raymond Links Arkéa to Alleged $133 Million Crypto Fraud

French crypto journalist Grégory Raymond linked Crédit Mutuel Arkéa to an alleged fraud of at least $133 million, saying fiat funds were converted into crypto and routed through exchange accounts.

Raymond said people close to the case described an organized network using numerous mule accounts. They said the diverted money was fiat, rather than crypto held directly by Arkéa, and flowed into accounts at several trading platforms, including Crypto.com.

Arkéa told Raymond on Tuesday that it could not confirm the information at that stage and offered no further comment.

ZachXBT first flagged more than $106 million in USD Coin (USDC) and Tether (USDT) transfers from an unnamed European entity on Sunday. He raised the estimate to $133 million on Tuesday and said some transfers occurred after his first warning. ZachXBT said he was highly confident North Korea's Lazarus Group was not responsible and estimated that more than $30 million might have been frozen with a prompt report.

Raymond said exchanges and stablecoin issuers did not freeze funds in time because the bank had not officially confirmed the incident. The alleged scheme involved converting bank-held fiat into digital assets before moving them through crypto exchange accounts.