A top official said that the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is planning to crack down on rogue crypto trading platforms and similar investment scams.
Recently, an FBI report revealed that US citizens are set to lose $2.5 billion in crypto scams in 2022.
DOJ to target rogue exchanges
Yoon Young Choi, director of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), said that his department will go down against entities that either help criminals process their illicit funds or turn a blind eye to such activities.
“…they are allowing…criminal actors to easily profit from their crimes and cash out in ways that are clearly problematic for us….and so we hope By focusing on those types of platforms, we are going to have a multiplier effect,” he told the Financial Times.
Choi also claimed that his team will be targeting crypto investment scams, specifically what are “pig butchers” – a term that refers to scammers who develop relationships over a period of time before preying on their victims.
The NCET was formed by the DOJ in October 2021, with Choi appointed as its inaugural director in February 2022. He has over a decade of experience with the DOJ.
DeFi, Bridge Chain New Focus Areas
Choi also clarified that his focus is on hackers and exploiters of DeFi and bridge chain protocols, as state-sponsored North Korean bad actors are the “key actors in this space.” North Korean hackers are believed to have stolen between $630 million and $1 billion in 2022. According to reports, the country is at the forefront of crypto crime in the world.
A Forbes report states that crypto projects faced over 125 hacking incidents in 2022. The top five were all in the DeFi space, losing $1.48 billion out of the roughly $3 billion that the entire crypto sector lost to these robberies.
The latest statement by the top cop of NCET is a departure from the area of focus mentioned earlier. Upon her appointment, the DOJ said the team would specifically target exchanges and mixers. Instead, the focus is now shifting to security breaches and theft of funds from DeFi and pull chain projects.
According to an FBI report, in 2022 US citizens could lose $10 billion to online fraud. Of this, a whopping $2.57 billion was lost to crypto investment scams.
Reports /TrainViral/
