U.S. Justice Department Launches National Crypto Enforcement

Full article by Turner Wright found here.

• Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco has announced today that the U.S. Justice Department has launched the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, a new division targeting platforms “that help criminals launder or hide their criminal proceeds.”

• This announcement comes during a wave of recent news and events indicating the United States government is taking a more active role in not only regulating cryptocurrency, but also law enforcement in regards to money laundering schemes and other cyber crimes.

• Monaco recognized her office’s work in tracking and charging the Darknet-based Bitcoin mixing service Helix in August, but noted that the U.S. should be doing more. She added that “we want to strengthen our capacity to dismantle the financial ecosystem enabling these criminal actors to flourish and and profit from what they are doing. We’re going to do that by drawing on our cyber experts and cyber prosecutors and money laundering experts.”

• The Deputy Attorney General has become a central figure in the U.S. government’s response to high profile ransomware and cyberattacks involving crypto payments, where she was part of the task force that “found and recaptured” millions of dollars worth of BTC sent to the Russian hacker group “DarkSide” after the Colonial Pipeline attack in May.

• “Cryptocurrency exchanges want to be the banks of the future. We need to make sure that folks can have confidence when they’re using these systems, and we need to make sure we’re poised to root out abuse that can take hold on them,” she added.