US Department of Justice Creates Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team

The US Department of Justice has created a team to investigate-related crime. The National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team will investigate crimes committed by virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services, and money laundering infrastructure actors.Mixing and plummeting services can darken the source of a transaction, by mixing it with other funds. The agency also added that Cryptocurrency is used in many criminal activities like ransomware demand payments, money laundering, and the illegal sales of drugs, weapons, and malware.

Many high-profile ransomware cases have involved demands in Cryptocurrency. One of the recent cases is the Colonial Pipeline attack in May, where the company reportedly paid a $5 million ransom to DarkSide. The Treasury Department issued sanctions against a exchange for the first time last month.

The Cryptocurrency enforcement team will be under the supervision of Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr. to start. The Justice Department is planning to hire someone who has experience with complex criminal investigations and prosecutions, as well as the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies and the blockchain.

The Department of Justice said that the NCET, will offer expertise in blockchain and Cryptocurrency transactions for the Justice Department and other US government agencies. They will draw team members from the Department of Justice’s money laundering, intellectual property, and computer crimes divisions, as well as from US attorneys’ offices across the country