The US Justice Department has come down hard on an unidentified US citizen who sent digital coins worth around $10 million to a location approved by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The defendant allegedly transferred cryptocurrencies to a country that is currently under US sanctions such as Russia, Cuba, Syria, and North Korea; among others.
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Prior to the case, the US DOJ charged two persons with conspiracy to launder bitcoin (Protocol).
US Department of Justice does not act
Judge Zia M. Farooqui has cleared criminal charges against the defendant, who allegedly carried out the illegal transfer of cryptocurrencies in one country against OFAC regulations.
OFAC has been clear from the outset that as stated in the updated OFAC Rules of October 2020, transactions with approved countries, whether involving fiat currency or cryptocurrency, are both considered illegal and prohibited.
According to Ari Radbor, senior adviser to the Treasury Department from 2019 to 2020, this is the first case but certainly not the last. This proves that US justice is taking this seriously and fighting against those trying to use cryptocurrencies as a vehicle to evade sanctions.
BitFinex BTC Laundering Case
Prior to this case, two individuals were also charged with conspiracy by the US DOJ to launder bitcoin, which was allegedly hacked from Bitfinex, a Hong Kong-based crypto platform.
The OFAC clamps down on nefarious crypto activities (Oxebridge Quality Resources).
The very transparent and immutable nature of bitcoin can certainly work against criminals. In that BitFinex case, funds were traced to a special crypto wallet using blockchain analytics – “Wallet1CGA4s”.
All other criminals were traced when Alphabe, a darkweb site, was shut down in 2017. The recent arrests and seizures of crypto funds show that cryptocurrencies are not something you can toy with without getting caught. It’s certainly not an asset for criminals to play with.
US DOJ Uses Blockchain Analytics Tools
The US Department of Justice is now using blockchain analytics tools to track the transactions of criminals. Subsequently, he called on an American cryptocurrency exchange, US Bank and an international crypto exchange to gather more evidence about the criminal.
The IP or Internet Protocol addresses used with transactions on exchanges help track the location of the perpetrator. Additionally, law enforcers also found that the accounts used on both exchanges were actually foreign accounts that come from OFAC-sanctioned countries.
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virtual currency is traceable
According to Judge Zia M. Farooqui, virtual currency can be tracked. In his opinion, trading virtual currencies is a criminal act involving two crypto platforms in an attempt to avoid legal hurdles.
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