Binance to Train Law Enforcement on How to Stop Crypto Crime

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, is putting in place a global training program to help stop crypt criminals, Matthew Price, the exchange’s head of intelligence and investigations in the Americas, told CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” program on Monday,

“It’s the first industry-led initiative to provide training to law enforcement, regulators [and] prosecutors around the world, to tackle financial crimes and crimes that may occur using cryptocurrency," Price, a former Internal Revenue Service agent, said.

“It’s important to have law enforcement have the ability to investigate these crimes, and one of the ways you do that is [by] demystifying crypto,” Price said. “Explaining how to investigate it, how to request information from cryptocurrency exchanges, how to use that information, how to interpret it and how to work with the industry to tackle the bad actors out there.”

According to a Chainalysis report, the crypto industry lost upward of $200 million in August because of hacks.

Yahoo Finance previously reported that Binance would work with law-enforcement officials to “track and trace suspicious accounts and fraudulent activities,” such as laundering money, distributing child pornography and evading sanctions.

That initiative had been explored “informally for a year," Price said, explaining that the team then “saw an opportunity” to bring the program to a wider audience, “particularly in jurisdictions that may not have some of the resources or experience in place to investigate,” crypto crime-related cases.

“We work with law enforcement throughout the world,” Price said, noting the exchange is working with authorities in Argentina, Brazil, the Philippines and elsewhere.