Holpop News

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will form a unit to deal with crimes that involve cryptocurrency.
Speaking Thursday at the Munich Cybersecurity Conference, Monaco said the FBI is creating “a specialized unit dealing with cryptocurrency.”
The unit will include cryptography experts. The team will also enlist blockchain analysis tools that will eventually be used to track and seize illicit funds.
Monaco previously announced the creation of an organization to prosecute cryptocurrency crimes called the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET). The organization is part of the Ministry of Justice.
“NCET will expand the existing efforts of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division to provide support and training to federal, state, local and international law enforcement agencies to build capacity to aggressively investigate and prosecute crimes that involve cryptocurrency and digital assets,” the agency said.
The teams will work together to pursue individuals who “misuse cryptocurrency to commit crimes.”
“Ransomware and digital extortion, like many other crimes fueled by cryptocurrency, only work if the bad guys get paid, which means we have to disrupt their business model,” Monaco said.