USA Hunting Down Cryptocurrency Criminals as the Number of Scams Grows

Panic and chaos is always an advantage to criminals, making it easier to get away with their illegal activities. However, law enforcement agencies in the USA do their best to deliver the rightful punishment to those who wish to get rich using the situation, and the effectiveness of their work grows even faster than the crime rate.

For instance, on March 17, the court authorities in the United States sentenced two Canadians for 24 months in jail after being found guilty of burgling and pilfering cryptocurrency worth 23 Bitcoin (BTC) from an Oregon denizen via a Twitter fraudulent scheme. The guys posed themselves as employees of the cryptocurrency exchanges from Hong-Kong known as HitBTC.

Fraudsters manipulated the Oregon denizen to reveal all his personal info which was used to tamper-with the accounts of the targeted victim such as his private email plus exchange account information. After acquiring the BTC, the scammers started splinting the stolen cryptocurrency by changing into cash and went ahead to purchase luxury vehicles and living an over-the-top way of life. So, it seems only fair enough they would go behind bars. 

Say “No” to terrorism punishment

Two days before, on March 15, a woman named Zoobia Shahnaz was sentenced to 13 years in prison for possible terrorism financing, as coinidol.com, a world blockchain news outlet, reported. It is known that the lady was sending some BTC to ISIS. 

Despite lawyers trying to defend her stating that she was funding refugees, not terrorists, the court didn’t take this into consideration, so the sentence was strict enough. Most probably, it is because terrorism has become a real pain in the neck not only in the USA but across the entire world.

Partially, US law enforcement agencies owe their success to the country's regulatory framework concerning cryptocurrency exchanges. If they hadn’t been obliged to comply with AML and KYC regulations, it would have been easier for the criminal to get away with that transaction, as the blockchain network used for cryptocurrency transactions is completely anonymous.   

A criminal should be put behind bars even if he is… a President

Generally, US law enforcement agencies are famous for their honesty and diligence while delivering justice. They will track a criminal even if he is not an ordinary person. Recently, the country’s authorities charged a Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in drug-trafficking using cryptocurrencies.

According to the US Dept of Justice, Maduro had arranged smuggling of cocaine in the territory of the United States, which can be considered as deliberate harming the citizen’s health. It is said that the drug dealings were paid in cryptocurrency, however, the exact kind of crypto is not exposed. Maybe, it was Venezuelan Petro? Well, then the President has a strange approach to popularising their national virtual money.  

Anyway, the Dept of Justice promises a $15 million bounty for everyone who will hand Maduro over, so he would bear the rightful punishment. So, as we see, despite the overall global situation is far from being positive, people are not alone in fighting it. For there is no crime without punishment. And it seems the USA authorities are doing their best to prove it.