The US Justice Department has appointed a seasoned computer crimes prosecutor to lead its new national cryptocurrency enforcement team, and the FBI has announced the formation of a unit dedicated to blockchain analysis and virtual asset seizure on Thursday.
Following the Justice Department’s largest-ever cash seizure earlier this month, the FBI has formed a “virtual asset exploitation” section. It accused a married New York pair of laundering bitcoins worth more than $4.5 billion stolen in the 2016 attack of the digital currency exchange Bitfinex.
Following a series of high-profile hacks last year on the largest US gasoline pipeline network and the world’s largest beef supplier, US officials under President Joe Biden have increased their monitoring of the crypto industry. Ransomware gangs frequently seek bitcoin as payment.
The FBI has been able to track down and recover some of the ransom money in several of these incidents.
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 in a speech at the Munich Cyber Security Conference in Germany.
According to her LinkedIn page, Choi worked as a cybercrime coordinator and assistant US attorney in New York for over a decade before becoming Monaco’s senior counsel. New York’s United States Attorney’s Office
“We are issuing a clear warning to criminals who use cryptocurrency to fuel their schemes,” Monaco said.
“We also call on all companies dealing with cryptocurrency – we need you to root out cryptocurrency abuses. To those who do not, we will hold you accountable where we can.”
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 in a speech at the Munich Cyber Security Conference in Germany.
According to her LinkedIn page, Choi worked as a cybercrime coordinator and assistant US attorney in New York for over a decade before becoming Monaco’s senior counsel. New York’s United States Attorney’s Office
“Moving forward, prosecutors, agents, and analysts will now assess – at each stage of a cyber investigation – whether to use disruptive actions against cyber threats, even if they might otherwise tip the cybercriminals off and jeopardize the potential for charges and apprehension,” she said.
