How This DOJ Strike Force Hunts Down Cryptocurrency Criminals – Ep.195

Magistrate judge Zia Faruqui, and Jessi Brooks, assistant U.S. attorney in the national security section at the United States Attorney’s Office, have prosecuted several cryptocurrency-related cases, many of them amongst the most well-known. In this episode, they talk about:

• how they came to be involved in the prosecution of so many cases involving cryptocurrency
• the nature of civil forfeiture cases
• the Al-Qassam Brigades case, which led to the largest ever seizure of a terrorist organization’s cryptocurrency accounts, and the terrorist organization’s use of dynamic addresses in an attempt to elude detection by authorities.
• how Al Qaeda used Telegram to pursue cryptocurrency donations
• the case involving ISIS and counterfeit PPE for COVID
• the process of seizing funds from unhosted wallets
• the North Korean affiliated Lazarus Group, and how they were able to amass $2580 million worth of cryptocurrency
• the methods hackers will use to cash out stolen crypto funds to fiat
• how different government agencies in the U.S., as well as in other countries, are coordinated when tackling these cases
• the Welcome to Video case and how they went about prosecuting a person in a foreign country
• how they’ve seen the use of cryptocurrencies by criminals evolve over time
• and whether or not they think decentralized exchanges will make it easier for criminals and hackers to cash out

Thank you to our sponsor! 

Crypto.com: https://www.crypto.com

Episode links: 

Jessi Brooks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-brooks-8289ab32/

Zia’s Faruqui: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zia-faruqui-a73ba11a5/

Three terror-finance cybercrime cases: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/global-disruption-three-terror-finance-cyber-enabled-campaigns

The Al-Qassam Brigades case: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/global-disruption-three-terror-finance-cyber-enabled-campaigns

Scam PPE site: https://www.wired.com/story/isis-allegedly-ran-a-covid-19-ppe-scam-site/

Civil forfeiture complaint against North Korea-affiliated hackers, Lazarus Group: 

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/united-states-files-complaint-forfeit-280-cryptocurrency-accounts-tied-hacks-two

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/press-release/file/1310411/download

https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/lazarus-group-north-korea-doj-complaint-august-2020

Welcome to Video indictment: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/south-korean-national-and-hundreds-others-charged-worldwide-takedown-largest-darknet-child

Dark Scandals: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2020/03/13/dark-deja-vu-irs-announces-charges-in-takedown-of-multi-million-dollar-child-exploitation-website-funded-by-bitcoin/#4a09b2ac28ae

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/press-release/file/1257581/download

Jonathan Levin from Chainalysis on Unchained: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-bitcoin-led-to-the-demise-of-the-largest-child-porn-site/

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• Source: https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-this-doj-strike-force-hunts-down-cryptocurrency-criminals/