The regulator canceled Plusspay’s registration, barred it from serving clients and ordered customer deposits returned after investigators tied the platform to an alleged laundering network linked to Tren de Aragua.
Chile’s Financial Market Commission, the CMF, revoked the registration of Inversiones Plusservice SpA, the company behind crypto platform Plusspay, after investigators tied it to an alleged money-laundering operation linked to Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua. The decision strips Plusspay of its ability to serve clients in Chile and requires it to return any customer deposits it still holds. Prosecutors have linked more than $84 million in suspicious transactions to the network. Investigators said Plusspay accepted deposits in Chilean pesos, converted them mainly into the stablecoins Tether and USD Coin, and routed the funds to foreign wallets and bank accounts. Prosecutors allege the money came from crimes including extortion and drug trafficking. The case also highlights a key feature of Chile’s Fintech Law: registration in the CMF’s fintech registry does not by itself authorize a company to operate. Plusspay registered in early 2024 but had not completed the separate authorization phase before advertising itself as CMF-regulated. The CMF can cancel registrations and refer cases to prosecutors, but it cannot directly shut down a fintech platform. The regulator said it is reviewing firms in its fintech registry for compliance. Separately, Pixeltec, Iuinvest and other companies were disqualified from taking new clients for incomplete filings, though they may still liquidate operations and return frozen funds to existing users.