Another day, another alleged fraud. But this one—brought to light by the federal indictment of Liberty Reserve, which prosecutors said was one of the world’s largest online money operations—sounded a little bit too familiar.

According to the charges, the operators of Liberty Reserve constructed an extremely complex international network for financial transactions that allowed its customers to transmit vast sums of money around the globe, all while operating under layers of anonymity. As a result, the indictment says, “Liberty Reserve was in fact used extensively for illegal purposes, functioning in effect as the bank of choice for the criminal underworld.”

If that rings a bell for any of you fraud aficionados, think back to 1991 and the virtual financial explosion of a shadowy international institution called the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, best known as B.C.C.I. While the two scandals have their differences, in both instances—if the charges against Liberty Reserve are true—the companies established virtual international spiderwebs of financial links, giving both the ability to avoid effective regulation of their operations.

Just read the descriptions in official documents. From the Liberty Reserve indictment: “Throughout its operation, Liberty Reserve and its principals sought to thwart effective regulation by anti-money laundering authorities and to evade the reach of law enforcement.” Then B.C.C.I. as described in a Senate report about the bank: “The structure was conceived . . . for the specific purpose of evading regulation or control by governments.”

Then the alleged crimes. Liberty Reserve, as described in the indictment: “The company grew into a financial hub of the cybercrime world, facilitating a broad range of online criminal activity.” B.C.C.I., from the Senate report: “(The principals) developed in BCCI an ideal mechanism for facilitating illicit activity by others.”

Many of the specific crimes described are identical: money laundering, investment fraud, narcotics trafficking, and the like. Each had alleged crimes that are not mentioned in the other case. For example, Liberty Reserve is accused of laundering money from child pornography, while investigators concluded that B.C.C.I. was doing the same for arms traffickers and terrorists.

The Liberty Reserve also links to E-Gold, another Internet currency used for money laundering. According to the indictment, two of the Liberty Reserve principals had operated an entity called Gold Age Inc. In December 2006, the two men—Budovsky and Kats—were convicted of operating the company as an unlicensed money transmitter. E-Gold was used in a variety of frauds, including one involving a criminal who conned thousands of small investors out of $50 million in a matter of weeks. Eventually, in 2008, the principals of E-Gold pleaded guilty to using the business as a money-laundering scheme.

Why do these similarities matter? Because these days, there are plenty of people who should know better singing the praises of online financial currencies and other broad operations that operate outside the controls and oversight of governments. This, the fans proclaim, prevents government manipulation. But, as B.C.C.I., E-Gold, and now, perhaps, Liberty Reserve show, avoiding government is exactly the goal of criminals.

So, before the honest folks engaging in financial transactions with unregulated entities continue to crow about their virtues, perhaps they should consider the fates of the innocents who proudly placed their money with other mysterious networks like B.C.C.I. and Liberty Reserve that have all come crashing down.