Department of Justice
Federal Grand Jury Indicts Officers In Tyre Nichols Death
The Department of Justice announced that federal charges were being brought against the five former Memphis Police Department officers for their role in the death of Tyre Nichols in January in a press conference on Tuesday.
US authorities seize crypto website Bitzlato as part of international enforcement action
The United States Department of Justice is expected to announce a “major international cryptocurrency enforcement action.” According to a Jan. 18 announcement, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco will lead a press conference in which the Justice Department will announce a major enforcement action — now believed to be against the crypto firm Bitzlato. The U.S. Treasury Department is also expected to announce a similar enforcement action. Other speakers at the event will include Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite of the Department of Justice’s criminal division, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace of the Eastern District of New York, FBI Associate Deputy Director Brian Turner, and Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo. This story is developing and will be updated. [flexi-common-too...
Digital Currency Group under investigation by U.S. authorities: Report
Crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group, or DCG, are under investigation by the United States Department of Justice’s Eastern District of New York (EDNY) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), according to a Bloomberg report. The authorities are digging into internal transfers between DCG and its subsidiary crypto lending firm Genesis Global Capital, noted the report citing people familiar with the matter. Prosecutors have already requested interviews and documents from both the companies, while the SEC is running an early-stage similar inquiry. As of yet, no indictment has been brought against DCG, nor have both U.S. authorities provided any information about the case. According to a spokesperson for DCG, the company was unaware of the investigation. “DCG h...
Hedge funds subpoenaed by U.S. prosecutors as Binance probe unfolds: Report
United States prosecutors are investigating hedge funds’ relationships with cryptocurrency exchange Binance for money-laundering violations. According to anonymous sources cited by the Washington Post, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Washington in Seattle subpoenaed investment firms to provide records of communications with Binance in the past months. The allegedly subpoenas do not mean prosecutors are bringing charges against the crypto exchange or hedge funds, as authorities are still evaluating evidence and a possible settlement with Binance, according to legal specialists. Binance did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment. Binance is under probe in the United States since 2018, when prosecutors began investigating a number of cases ...
US DOJ reportedly investigating FTX CEO for siphoning funds out of the US
While many crypto fraudsters were able to slip through the cracks in the past, the same does not hold for FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). Running parallel to the ongoing scrutiny related to FTX frauds, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is reportedly investigating a potential fraud that involves SBF siphoning funds offshore just days before FTX filed for bankruptcy. According to a Bloomberg report, the federal investigation aims to examine SBF’s involvement in improperly transferring FTX funds to the Bahamas as the defunct crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11. The anonymous informant further revealed that DOJ officials met with FTX’s court-appointed overseers to discuss the scope of the information they need for further investigation. DOJ also plans to investigate wh...
DOJ publishes second report on EO digital asset crime, announces new expert network
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) published its latest report in response to President Joe Biden’s March executive order (EO) on the development of digital assets on Sept. 16. At the same time, it announced the formation of a new Digital Asset Coordinator Network (DAC) “in furtherance of the department’s efforts to combat the growing threat posed by the illicit use of digital assets to the American public.” The report, titled “The Role of Law Enforcement in Detecting, Investigating, and Prosecuting Criminal Activity Related to Digital Assets,” complements its June report on international law enforcement cooperation. The new report characterizes digital asset criminal exploitation, with particular attention to nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi) and goes o...
DOJ Arrests Four Officers In Breonna Taylor’s Death, Black Twitter Demands Justice
HipHopWired Featured Video CLOSE Source: Leigh Vogel / Getty Four current and former Louisville, KY police officers involved in a fatal raid on the apartment of Breonna Taylor have been charged in her death by the Feds. According to the DOJ, their crimes including lying in order to secure the warrant that was used to search her home. What took so damn long? Breonna Taylor died in March 2020 as she lay in bed after officers knocked down the door to her apartment in a raid. Her boyfriend, TK, fired on the officers, hitting on in the leg, believing it was a home invasion. The cops responded with a volley of shots, two of which killed 26-year-old Breonna Taylor as she lay in bed, and she was pronounced dead at the scene. According to US Attorney General Merrick Garland, members of Louisville M...
US Justice Department seized $500K in fiat and crypto from hackers connected to DPRK government
The United States Department of Justice has seized and returned roughly $500,000 in fiat and crypto from a hacking group tied to the North Korean government, which included two crypto payments made by U.S. health care providers. In a Tuesday announcement, the Justice Department said in conjunction with the FBI it had investigated a $100,000 ransomware payment in Bitcoin (BTC) from a Kansas hospital to a North Korean hacking group in order to regain access to its systems, as well as a $120,000 BTC payment from a medical provider in Colorado to one of the wallets connected to the aforementioned attack. In May, the FBI filed a seizure warrant for funds from the two ransom attacks and others laundered through China, which the Justice Department reported as worth roughly $500,000 total. “These ...
Seized crypto safe with US Marshals Service? Not so much, new audit reveals
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the United States Department of Justice conducted an extensive audit of the cryptocurrencies seized by the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) — revealing the dire need for the federal agency to revamp its existing crypto management and policy systems. OIG’s audit on the seized cryptocurrencies found the USMS implementing adequate safeguards over its storage and access. However, the agency was found to be using spreadsheets to maintain track of the inventory owing to the inability of the existing system, Consolidated Asset Tracking System (CATS), for daily management of crypto assets. As of June 2021, the USMS managed nearly 200 DOJ cryptocurrency seizures. We looked at the USMS’s management of seized cryptocurrency, and found that the ...
OpenSea ‘insider trading’ could see NFTs labeled securities: Former SEC lawyer
Former Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer Alma Angotti says this week’s news about an OpenSea employee being charged with insider trading could open the doors to non-fungible tokens being labeled as securities. On Wednesday, in a first for the industry, prosecutors in Manhattan charged former OpenSea product manager Nathaniel Chastain with insider trading. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said the exact charges were “wire fraud and money laundering in connection with a scheme to commit insider trading.” Until now, the phrase “insider trading” has not been used in regard to cryptocurrency and typically refers to insider trading of securities. Related: EU commissioner calls for global coordination on crypto regulation Angotti was once an enforceme...
US federal judge approves of Justice Dept criminal complaint on using crypto to evade sanctions
The United States Department of Justice may move forward on a criminal prosecution case against a U.S. citizen who allegedly violated sanctions through cryptocurrency. According to a Friday opinion filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the unnamed individual who is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Justice Department allegedly sent more than $10 million in Bitcoin (BTC) from a U.S.-based crypto exchange to an exchange in a country for which the U.S. currently imposes sanctions — suggesting Russia, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, or Iran. The filing alleged the individual “conspired to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act” and conspired to defraud the United States. The individual allegedly “proudly stated the Payments Platform could circumven...
Seizure of Bitfinex funds is a reminder that crypto is no good for money launderers
As public understanding of how digital assets work becomes more nuanced along with the mainstreaming of crypto, the language of Bitcoin’s (BTC) “anonymity” gradually becomes a thing of the past. High-profile law enforcement operations such as the one that recently led to the U.S. government seizing some $3.6 billion worth of crypto are particularly instrumental in driving home the idea that assets whose transaction history is recorded on an open, distributed ledger are better described as “pseudonymous,” and that such a design is not particularly favorable for those wishing to get away with stolen funds. No matter how hard criminals try to obscure the movement of ill-gotten digital money, at some point in the transaction chain they are likely to invoke addresses to which personal details h...
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