U.S. Attorney General William Barr today released an 83-page report detailing the threats and challenges cryptocurrencies pose to law enforcement, and in some ways, it’s a doozy.
Aside from seizing or freezing “all property and interests in property” from sanctioned persons, under the law “U.S. persons generally are prohibited from dealing with them,” according to the OFAC website. The Secret Service also seized millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies and cash allegedly stolen in the sophisticated phishing and spoofing attacks by Russian national Danil Potekhin in 2017 and 2018, which was subsequently laundered by Dmitrii Karasavidi.
While some of the crypto red flags are obvious, others are very broad and could well catch legitimate investors in the net—for instance, opening an account and making a lot of transactions despite being old.
When a powerful international financial oversight body releases a report on “so-called stablecoins,” you just know it isn’t going to be comfortable reading.
