Justice Dept.: Digital currencies attract money criminals
A spokesman for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division told a Senate subcommittee hearing that virtual currencies such as Bitcoin are vulnerable to organized crime. “We have seen increasing use of such currencies by drug dealers, traffickers of child pornography, and perpetrators of large-scale fraud schemes,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman told Congress. The anonymity and untraceability of digital currencies makes them ripe for crime, making law enforcement investigations significantly harder. What’s more, the currencies have no controls in place to stop illegal....
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A federal court has sentenced Arthur Budovsky, 42, to 20 years in prison for laundering hundreds of millions of dollars through a virtual currency called Liberty Reserve that was used by cyber criminals for laundering, according to the U.S. Justice Department. U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote also ordered Budovsky to pay a $500,000 fine. Budovsky pleaded guilty in January to a count of conspiring to commit money laundering. The court noted he ran an “extraordinarily successful,” large-scale international money laundering operation. A ‘Significant Sentence’. “The significant sentence....
Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency that deals with criminal intelligence is calling for police to be given additional powers when it comes to identifying wrong-doers, particular those who are laundering money using bitcoin and other digital currencies. "We're seeing that virtual currencies are being used as an instrument to facilitate crime, particularly in regard to the laundering of illicit profits," said Rob Wainwright, director at Europol, at a nuclear security conference in The Hague, Netherlands. Europol doesn't have their own policing powers, but they say that....
A newly-released memorandum dating back to May 2013 (and obtained via the Canadian Access to Intermation Act) originating at the Canadian Finance Department suggests that bitcoin and digital currencies could serve as "an attractive payment method for criminals," The Canadian Press reports. The internal memo was said to have been prepared for now-deceased finance minister Mr. Jim Flaherty, and while it makes no indication as to what the levels of abuse are, it does make clear that bitcoin can be used for illicit purposed. Sound familiar? That's because cash can be used for these purposes,....
The Department of Justice is looking to hire attorneys to assist it with developing digital currency regulations. As detailed in a job posting from 3rd November, the Justice Department's Criminal Division is seeking two applicants for its Policy Unit of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section. The Justice Department is one of a number of regulatory bodies in the US with oversight of the tech. Though no specific knowledge of digital currencies is required, prospective candidates should possess “knowledge of anti-money laundering and asset forfeiture laws, processes and....
US Attorney General Eric Holder believes bitcoin criminals pose a new set of challenges for law enforcement. During his testimony this morning before the House Judiciary Committee Holder said the US Justice Department is keeping track of bitcoin-related developments. Of course, this does not mean that the Justice Department is treating all bitcoin transactions as suspect. Holder stressed that the department is working with financial regulators in an effort to weed out the bad apples. Bitcoin can pose challenges for law enforcement. Holder's interest in bitcoin is focused solely on "bad....