FBI to form digital currency unit, Justice Dept taps new crypto czar
WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department has tapped a seasoned computer crimes prosecutor to lead its new national cryptocurrency enforcement team and announced on Thursday (Feb 17) that the FBI is launching a unit for blockchain analysis and virtual asset seizure.The creation of the FBI's "virtual asset exploitation" unit comes after the Justice Department's largest-ever financial seizure earlier this month.
It charged a married New York couple with allegedly laundering bitcoins now valued at over US$4.5 billion that were stolen in the 2016 hack of the digital currency exchange Bitfinex.US regulators under President Joe Biden have been ratcheting up their scrutiny of the crypto industry in the wake of a series of high-profile cyberattacks last year on the largest US fuel pipeline network and the world's largest beef supplier.
Ransomware groups often demand their fees in bitcoin.In some of those cases, the FBI has been able to track down and recover some of the ransom.Cryptocurrencies rely on blockchain technology, a database shared across a network of computers, in which records are difficult to change once added.In a speech at the Munich Cyber Security Conference in Germany, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced that Eun Young Choi, a prosecutor who led the case against a Russian hacker who helped steal information about more than 80 million JPMorgan & Chase Co customers, will lead the department's cryptocurrency enforcement team.Choi, who most recently served as Monaco's senior counsel, worked for nearly a decade as a cybercrime coordinator and assistant US attorney in New York, according to her LinkedIn profile.
