A HUSBAND AND wife cryptocurrency trading team arrested in Dublin over an alleged €21m international money laundering operation have been accused of facilitating organised crime.

Jixu Wang, 35, and his 34-year-old wife, Ye Wang, who are originally from China but living on Avoca Road, were initially charged with possessing crime proceeds in a digital bank account between September 2023 and February 2024.

They had been denied bail and have been in custody since 16 November last year.

The couple appeared again at Dublin District Court where Detective Garda Barry Cusack informed Judge Deirdre Gearty that the Director of Public Prosecutions directed trial on indictment in the Circuit Court.

They were also further charged with facilitating organised crime.

Judge Gearty noted they made no reply when the detective put the new charges to them.

She remanded them in continuing custody pending the preparation of a book of evidence, and they will appear again next week.

Following a “complex” investigation by the Dublin East Garda economic crime unit, with cooperation from Europol and police forces in Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, officers arrested the unemployed couple on 12 November.

They searched their rented apartment on Avoca Road, Blackrock.

An earlier bail hearing was told the pair previously ran a cryptocurrency trading business.

They moved from the Philippines to Ireland in 2023 as part of an “immigration investment programme” after donating €400,000 to a charity, ICARE Housing CLG.

Detective Garda Steven Dunican and Barry Cusack raised concerns about flight risk or that they could dispose of evidence.

They had said officers from a Garda economic crime unit received information from German police about a suspected investment fraud.A German citizen had €10,000 transferred from his bank to a Paytend digital bank account of Wang.

Detective Garda Cusack conducted inquiries with Paytend regarding Jixu Wang, and it was alleged the accused used his Chinese passport number on the account.

Garda Cusack identified 1,894 unusual transactions transferred into the account, valued at €5,043,705, from 622 different IBANs over five months between 2 July and 9 November 2023.

It was claimed that there were other unusual transactions between another Paytend account held by his wife, Ye Wang, who is a qualified accountant.

Her Paytend account allegedly received 733 transactions valued at just over €2.1m from 321 different bank accounts from 11 September 2023, and 12 January last year.

The court heard claims GPS location has been obtained for login dates for both Paytend accounts, matching their address.

The detectives claimed the couple were both unemployed but had just over €7 million in their accounts.

Gardai, including the Criminal Assets Bureau, allegedly identified €14.7m in cryptocurrency wallets, of which €4.4m has been seized or frozen by the investigation team, the bail hearing was told.

Their apartment was searched, resulting in an alleged seizure of €20,000, gold coins and five envelopes with “seed words” to access a cryptocurrency wallet. Documents, phones and laptops have also been recovered.

It was alleged Mrs Wang helped create fake documents to set up “money ” accounts, but she denied knowing it was part of a crime.

The detectives feared the couple, who have a young child, would leave the country if released on bail, as they had no family in Ireland or links to this jurisdiction.