to find a solution, ah, because when your business uses up next with chris kolber offer, she'll break this anymore on our website as well. d, w dot com been for swollen thanks for watching. and ah, you stay it is pulling news fest goes to cordova. now i'm sure that it was, i spoke to soon by the name of sampling window, the money in supposing what say the, what's in bought by the other people you books on you ah, hello guys. this is the 77 percent. the platform for africa. you to be speech

issues and share ideas. you know, on the channels, we are not afraid. detachment, dedicated toughie. young people clearly have the solution. good future loans to the 77 percent. now every weekend on d, w ah, the biggest ever financial seizure the u. s. department of justice announcing it's confiscated more than $3600000000.00 in bitcoin, and accusing a couple of having been laundering crypto currencies for years. we get more of the story from our financial reporter. also coming up australia says it's locking arms with lithuania, as china has erected, trade barriers and disputes over its political agenda. and will take you to hong

kong where measures to contain a fresh karone of ours outbreak have support and buying among citizen. i'm chris cockburn, berlin, welcome to the program. 94000 bitcoin. that is $3600000000.00 a record seizure by the u. s. justice department on tuesday. police in new york arrested a husband and wife couple that allegedly tried to launder just that amount, which seems to be connected to a 2016 hack of the virtual currency exchange bit infects with finance. the attorney general says the arrests or prove that quote, crypto currency is not a safe haven for criminals and that the law will and can, we will follow the money. no matter from the law. what? no matter what form it takes us long. right. the 2nd close look at the story with my colleague, lars harder. he's a finance reporter form. a wall street corresponded lars. good to have you. this

couple tried to longer. $3600000000.00 worth of bitcoin. who are these people? are, as they said before, they are a husband and wife team. and let's look at him 1st. ilya least in stine, he calls himself dutch. he seems to be pretty tech savvy. he is an angel investor, and he used to be a part of the why common 8 or that's a start up accelerator that has helped some important, some really big text firms. get to the next level among those our air b and b or dropbox, but also coin base, which of course is a link, a possible link here to the crypt occurrences. and then if we look at her head, the more again, she's a little bit all over the place. she says about herself that she started many different companies. she was also bankrupt and homeless a couple of times then rich again. and where do i notice from i went through her instagram and youtube account earlier today, and i can't tell you whether that was the best part of the worst part of my day.

but she's also, she's putting a lot of stuff up there, including some rap videos which i think are really the worst i've ever seen. so quite an interesting person here. quite an interesting background. how did the to get caught? well, you know, people used to think of crypt occurrences as untraceable and they're really not every crypto transaction isa. in that block, in that block chain, a publicly available ledger, it is transcribed there. that is essentially code and code. of course, if you're into the tech world and if you understand it can be traced. if you have parts of a code here and it appears here and they are again, you can trace it. and that's exactly how they did it as order from the w business. thank you. and now to some of the other global business stories making headlines around the world, toyota has locked in almost 7000000000 dollar net profit for past quarter. that's despite a global chip shortage that has led to production cuts for the japanese auto giant

less toyota to lower is production goals for the full year, while its profit forecast remains unchanged. cellphone replacement cycles are getting longer. according to a study european users hold onto a smart phone for 40 months, on average, for us users, that's 24 months. that's more than 25 percent longer than it used to be. it's because of growing sustainability concerns and the trend is set to cost phone makers, billions in revenue. australia says it is standing by lithuania and made a dispute with china. the baltic country has been slapped with sanctions by china, including a boycott of its products, all because it allowed taiwan to set up a representative office. there. now both lithuania and australia, calling on the world trade organization to intervene. the lithuanian foreign minister met with his australian counterpart on tuesday. both countries want to

strengthen their ties and take a joint action against china trade blockade by you may engine ma'am at these developments this way now has urged countries to resist what it calls chinese coercion. here's what the lithuanian for foreign minister had to say . both russia and china currently asked act as a disruptors of the global rules based order. so basically it's not, it's not regional. it's not just in the pacific regional issues or european regional issues is some of global players that are acting destructively. and we have to ask act counter destructively, the left lithuanian foreign minister, gabriella is lance burgess speaking. there relations are frosty, between lithuania and china, all because the baltic country and taiwan are forging closer economic ties. taiwan is a self ruled island which nevertheless,

beijing claims as its own and the chinese boycott of its goods is having an impact on businesses. in lithuania, this lithuanian liquor isn't allowed in china. $60000.00 bottles were headed there, but within, diverted to taiwan. yet this drink is very popular in lithuania, it's inexpensive them and we're proud of it because it's made here. it's there but it was pain. i'm a kind relations or frosty between lithuania and china, and there's much more at stake than alcoholic beverages. china is boycotting all goods from the small country. the crisis was triggered by the opening of an official taiwanese representatives office in the lithuanian capital, vilnius. eric long as ty, one's representative in lithuania and understands how tricky the situation is for his host country chenise 3rd party of which is responsible for

this. i think china should find a solution. they should step back or should not do this any more. and at the same time, we understand that china will continue to bully towns, friend. so taiwan is willing to provide or what whatever assistance week we could over. as recently as the summer containers were rolling from lithuania to china via the new soap road route. in the meantime, china white lithuania from its customs database. the result, the loading terminal in lithuania is at a standstill. lithuanian politicians plain china. p r c is trying to build a final centric world, ignore the international world order. and instead of supporting fee market build a system where beijing's political will is dictating where businesses should go and

what they should do. the lithuanian economy is suffering from the boycott. german and french companies are also caught in the middle. china insists on blocking all goods made. in lithuania, german business representatives in the baltic states are counting on a solution through the world trade organization. class of clear china is violating w t o rules here. the e u internal market is also affected because of our close economic ties in which is why brussels has now actively intervened. that's it was earned on active in concert . and in the interest of our company, often we hope the situation will ease up soon. thus, this laga national and spun taiwan also wants to play it's part to ease the burden . it wants to fund investment projects in lithuania, to the tune of 1200000000 euros for more in the spring and the w corresponded. so song,

an entire page. so australia seemingly on lithuania side here, are we seeing a trend and support for taiwan or these isolated cases? yes, we are seeing a trend. that's exactly what china as war is about, is that there will be a anti china force like united to counter it's a power. so of course that at the beginning, like china hope that these will be all the single cases. for example, the dispute with our most truly and the dispute with the s, sometimes china and their official media will call this country a small countries. but together they can had big power to cow to china. taiwan is a planning to set up a fund to invest in lithuania, trying to offset some of the damage. this dispute is causing tell us more of that town has established a $1000000000.00 us dollar financing fund to promote bi lateral business corporation between taiwan and their lithuania tony's manufacturers who are willing

to invest in lithuania or have joint ventures with the country as well as the, the, any and manufacturers who have cooperative relations with taiwan can apply for these funds and lead to any effects. the new credit scheme can a boost projects in technology sector is facing chinese pressure, such as computer chips, laser manufacturing, and biotechnology. and so i'm wondering what does taiwan get out of all of this? i mean they are poking the hornets nest here. so the move from time one is not only to help lithuania, but as a part of town has efforts to strengthen relations with the european countries. and what we need to know is that behind all this, this, this very important us factor, both taiwan and leave the ann lee who any a hack, closed military and security ties with the united states and are 2 of the most pro american places in the world. maybe both at the top of the government and at the

grassroots level. as a us, china rivalry intensifies luthey luthey any a decision to establish a presence in taiwan if halted due to a pressure from bay gene will certainly bring shame to the united states. d w's so song han reporting from ty bay, so thank you. hong kong has announced rush corona virus restrictions as a severe record of 625 new infections on tuesday. a number paling and comparison with outbreaks around the world, but an alarming signal to officials in hong kong that have adopted china's 0 covert strategy. the news sparked panic buying among citizens. ah, in hong kong, soon one district rush to buy vegetables as fears of a shortage grow rising prices and to top it all tough new rules to try. and copper serge in corona virus infections yoke i go to hong kong, people are having a hard time going day and the spreading viruses piling pressure and the hong kong

governments cove at 0 strategy. while that approach is kept overall infections low, it is isolated the asian financial hub from much of the world through strict border controls on aggressive local measures. daysia show business confidence a slip badly. also controversial is the requirement to show a vaccine pass on mandatory check in with the government's leap home safe tracking up to enter restaurants public trust and the beijing back to authorities is running out historic lows. i'm many hong kong are anxious about sharing their data. i think the app is quite problematic, especially given the current electrical or consensus in hong kong and be at the source code at the app. it's never, it like opens or so there is no way he actually there people to check at where data goes and how does it operate. an increasing number of people are avoiding eateries . instead, they're simply ordering take away and find

a quiet spots to eat with friends, but bush in a picnic with privacy that such over now as usual, you can find more on our website at d, w dot com slash business. i'm chris kolber. relent, thanks for watching. ever self a successfully ah, a fairy tale me in china ah, the winter olympic games in beijing are set to be a big hit. no matter the cost or excitement is the government's main focus and surveillance is keeping tab inside china. beijing. controversy. close up on

d w. the w's crime fighters are back that africa most successful radio drama series continues. 3rd of all episodes are available online. and of course you can share and discuss on d, w, africa's facebook page, and other social media platforms, crime fighters, tune in. now the china is experiencing a snow st. paul, to the government wants to see pat slope plays or to tanya or young people are heating, president cheating, think you're coming off for the countries leader shooting, paying a set the cost. oh wow. and everyone is expected to follow that to they.