Düsseldorf (dpa/lnw) – In a total of 37 proceedings against organized crime (OC), financial investigators in North Rhine-Westphalia were able to temporarily secure almost 85.7 million euros in illegally obtained assets in 2021. This emerges from the Organized Crime Situation Report 2021, which NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) has now forwarded to the Düsseldorf state parliament.
According to the report, the enormous increase in asset confiscation by a good 154 percent compared to the previous year resulted from proceedings being conducted at the State Criminal Police Office for fraudulent marketing of a cryptocurrency. In these illegal financial transfer transactions alone, around 72.9 million euros were confiscated in 2021.
The overall economic damage caused by organized crime is estimated at over one billion euros for the year under review. These calculations included white-collar and property crime as well as criminal tax matters from nine OC investigations. Compared to the previous year, the number of preliminary investigations in the OC area increased from 80 to 90.
