The US Justice Department has laid an iron hand on an undisclosed American citizen who has sent roughly $10 million worth of digital coins to a location sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The defendant has allegedly transferred cryptocurrencies to a country that is currently under US sanctions such as Russia, Cuba, Syria, and North Korea; among others.
Suggested Reading | DAO For Abortion, Anyone?
Prior to the case, the US DOJ charged two persons with conspiracy to launder bitcoin (Protocol).
Judge Zia M. Faruqui has approved the criminal charges on defendant who allegedly committed illegal transfer of cryptocurrencies to a country against OFAC regulations.
OFAC has been clear from the start that as stated in October 2020’s updated OFAC regulations that transactions made with sanctioned countries, whether involving fiat money or cryptocurrencies, is both considered illegal and prohibited.
According to Ari Redbor, Treasury Department Senior Adviser from 2019 to 2020, this is the first case but definitely not the last. It proves a point that the US Justice is taking this seriously and combating against people who are attempting to use cryptocurrencies as a vehicle to evade sanctions.
Prior to this case, two individuals were also charged with conspiracy by the US DOJ due to bitcoin laundering which was allegedly hacked from BitFinex, a crypto platform based in Hong Kong.
The OFAC clamps down on nefarious crypto activities (Oxebridge Quality Resources).
The very transparent and immutable nature of bitcoin can definitely work against criminals. In that BitFinex case, the funds were traced to a particular crypto wallet using blockchain analytics – “wallet1CGA4s.”
All other perpetrators were traced when AlphBay, a darkweb site, was shut down in 2017. The recent arrests and seizure of crypto funds show that cryptocurrency is not something you can toy with without getting caught. This definitely isn’t an asset to play around with for criminals.
The US Justice department is now using blockchain analytics tools to track down transactions of perpetrators. Hereinafter, they subpoenaed an American cryptocurrency exchange, U.S. bank, and also an international crypto exchange to gather more evidence about the perpetrator.
The IP or Internet Protocol addresses that are used with transactions on the exchanges helped track the location of the perpetrator. Additionally, the law enforcers also found out that the accounts used on both exchanges were in fact foreign accounts that come from countries sanctioned by OFAC.
Crypto total market cap at $1.3 trillion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com
According to Judge Zia M. Faruqui, virtual currency can be tracked down. In his opinion, the transaction of virtual currencies constitutes a criminal act which also involves two crypto platforms in the effort to avoid legal impediments.
Suggested Reading | Avatars For Ukraine – Top Video Game Artists, Celebs Create Poignant NFT Artworks
Featured image from Crypto Economy, chart from TradingView.com
The emergence of crypto has brought about significant changes across multiple industries, including gambling. But with perks like anonymity, faster transactions, and the likes, will crypto trading become a gambling addiction instead?
KikyoThe Apple Vision Pro, amidst initial excitement, faces declining sales and user interest due to high pricing and usability issues, while Meta's strategic collaborations with Lufthansa and Tencent signal its aggressive push into VR markets.
WeatherlyBitget aims to mirror major exchanges by initiating an on-chain ecosystem with a $10M fund, boosting its Web3 presence and native token utility.
MiyukiChengdu police have cracked a major underground money exchange operation using USDT as a medium, involving an amount up to 13.8 billion yuan.
AlexIn a research report on Wednesday (May 15), BTIG stated that the latest Bitcoin halving has reduced the block reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, causing less efficient mining equipment to go offline as miner income dropped to a level equivalent to a Bitcoin price of around $30,000.
WeiliangPolice in the Toronto area of Canada have announced the arrest and indictment of a man who calls himself the "Crypto King," alleging he is involved in an investment fraud worth millions of dollars.
MiyukiThe battle for AI supremacy intensifies as Google showcased a slew of groundbreaking AI technology a day after OpenAI revealed the enhanced ChatGPT AI model, GPT4o.
CatherineOpenAI's GPT-4o integrates text, audio, and video processing, revolutionizing human-computer interaction. Despite Worldcoin's recent price drop and misconceptions about its affiliation with OpenAI, the latter gears up for the launch of its macOS desktop app.
AnaisEclipse Labs founder Neel Somani has resigned as CEO amidst sexual misconduct allegations. These allegations compound existing challenges in the crypto world, from money laundering to terrorism financing.
KikyoA large investor deposited over $3.3 million worth of Worldcoin tokens into Binance, suffering a $50,000 loss, drawing scrutiny on Worldcoin's trajectory. DeFi^2 warned that Worldcoin's tokenomics may primarily benefit insiders, emphasising its hyperinflationary model and manipulative design, raising concerns in the crypto community.
Weatherly