Dubbed Operation Destabilise, the NCA uncovered a complex global scheme, where two networks ran a ring of criminals who collected money in one country, primarily the UK, and made the equivalent value available in another country, usually by swapping cryptocurrency for cash.

At the centre of the investigation were two Russian linked networks, Smart run by Ekaterina Zhdanova and TGR, headed up by George Rossi, who are both at large and have been sanctioned by the US as a result of the NCA investigation.