Nexo acquitted of money laundering and tax fraud

The crypto lender Nexo will not be sued in Bulgaria lack of evidence demonstrating a criminal activity. The survey of the public prosecutor stops.

Lenders have had a tough time of it in the crypto markets. Several, such as Celsius and Voyager Digital, have gone bankrupt. Nexo may not have been far from disaster.

However, the company remains operational, and one threat has been swept aside. Earlier this year, Nexo was raided by the Bulgarian authorities on suspicion of money laundering.

Nexo and its executives cleared

The police action worried Nexo’s customers, who were making large withdrawals from the platform. Almost a year later, the crypto firm has been cleared. The Bulgarian Prosecutor’s Office has put an end to the investigations.

According to a Bulgarian news agency, Nexo has been released for lack of evidence of criminal activity, including money laundering, tax fraud and computer fraud.

Four Nexo executives, Kosta Kanchev, Antoni Trenchev, Kalin Metodiev and Trayan Nikolov, were also in the court’s crosshairs. No evidence of guilt was produced. They have therefore also been released.

Nexo’s crypto products spared

The prosecutors also concluded that the products offered by Nexo did not constitute financial instruments. In this, they differ from the US authorities, and in particular the SEC.

Sued by several U.S. states, crypto-lending platform Nexo agreed in January 2023 to pay $45 million in fines, including $22.5 million to the U.S. securities regulator.

In Bulgaria, therefore, the outcome is different, and Nexo’s co-founder is delighted.

“The dropping of all charges against Nexo and its leaders by the Bulgarian prosecutor’s office, along with their confirmation that there were no crimes, shows unequivocally that the whole attack on Nexo was political and should not have happened in the first place,” reacts Antoni Trechev.