# FBI to form new digital currency unit as Justice Dept taps new crypto czar



## MarvinTheParanoidAndroid (Feb 17, 2022)

https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/business/1926758-fbi-to-form-new-digital-currency-unit-as-justice-dept-taps-new-crypto-czar
		



			https://archive.ph/0uJHx
		


The U.S. Justice Department has tapped a seasoned computer crimes prosecutor to lead its new national cryptocurrency enforcement team and announced on Thursday that the FBI is launching a unit for blockchain analysis and virtual asset seizure. The creation of the "virtual asset exploitation" unit at the FBI comes on the heels of the Justice Department's largest-ever financial seizure.

The U.S. Justice Department has tapped a seasoned computer crimes prosecutor to lead its new national cryptocurrency enforcement team and announced on Thursday that the FBI is launching a unit for blockchain analysis and virtual asset seizure. The creation of the "virtual asset exploitation" unit at the FBI comes on the heels of the Justice Department's largest-ever financial seizure. Earlier this month, it charged a married New York couple with allegedly laundering bitcoins now valued at over $4.5 billion that were stolen in the 2016 hack of the digital currency exchange Bitfinex.

U.S. regulators under President Joe Biden have been ratcheting up their scrutiny of the crypto industry in the wake of a series of high-profile cyberattacks last year on the largest U.S. fuel pipeline network and the world's largest beef supplier. Ransomware groups often demand their fees in bitcoin. In a speech at the Munich Cyber Security Conference in Germany, 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.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)


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## (((Oban Lazcano Kamz))) (Feb 17, 2022)

> virtual asset seizure


Now they're coming after video game dlc, epic.


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## Klaptrap (Feb 17, 2022)

I knew the evil bastards wouldn't let us have freedom for long.


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## NOT Sword Fighter Super (Feb 17, 2022)

I misread that title and thought the FBI was coming up with their own coin.
Fuck you, feds.


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## (((Oban Lazcano Kamz))) (Feb 17, 2022)

NOT Sword Fighter Super said:


> I misread that title and thought the FBI was coming up with their own coin.
> Fuck you, feds.


pump and dump the fed coin lol, that would be funny.


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## Toolbox (Feb 17, 2022)

(((Oban Lazcano Kamz))) said:


> pump and dump the fed coin lol, that would be funny.


I can imagine this will lead to (more) honeypot coins. When they are obviously found out I can see this happening.


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## MysticLord (Feb 17, 2022)

While there are obvious risks for crypto bros, shit like ransomware would be impossible to profit from without bitcoin and monero, and despite nearly 20 years of R&D there's still almost no practical application besides ponzi schemes for crypto.


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## NOT Sword Fighter Super (Feb 17, 2022)

MysticLord said:


> While there are obvious risks for crypto bros, shit like ransomware would be impossible to profit from without bitcoin and monero, and despite nearly 20 years of R&D there's still almost no practical application besides ponzi schemes for crypto.


Yeah, but the feds really don’t like the fact that they can’t directly control it/freeze assets like a regular bank account.


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## Pimpleking55 (Feb 17, 2022)

So is crypto over now?


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## Uncle Warren (Feb 17, 2022)

Gee whatever happened to the whole anonymous, secure, unregulated currency?


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## NewRetroVagina23 (Feb 17, 2022)

Uncle Warren said:


> Gee whatever happened to the whole anonymous, secure, unregulated currency?


Using digital technology to route around the designs of an openly hostile and malicious government was always a fool's game.


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## Uncle Warren (Feb 17, 2022)

NewRetroVagina23 said:


> Using digital technology to route around the designs of an openly hostile and malicious government was always a fool's game.


Personally I believe crypto is for retards who don't understand how the stock market works.


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## MODUS (Feb 17, 2022)

Good luck, all our investments are diversified into Team Fortress 2 hats.


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## Agent Abe Caprine (Feb 17, 2022)

This is why I pirate my crypto.


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## XMassAllYearRound (Feb 17, 2022)

Their bill didn't pass and now they decided they will go on ahead and do what the bill was supossed to do anyways?
Man, something tells me privacy coins are about to get really popular now


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## NOT Sword Fighter Super (Feb 17, 2022)

NewRetroVagina23 said:


> Using digital technology to route around the designs of an openly hostile and malicious government was always a fool's game.


It will always be a cat and mouse game.



Uncle Warren said:


> Personally I believe crypto is for retards who don't understand how the stock market works.



What, so you can have your future controlled by assholes like Leon Cooperman?


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## MarvinTheParanoidAndroid (Feb 17, 2022)

Uncle Warren said:


> Personally I believe crypto is for retards who don't understand how the stock market works.


Gee willikers Mr. Uncle Warren, I sure do hope you never end up getting debanked for holding wrongful political opinions or being associated with the wrong people.

It sure is a good thing that Null can accept credit card donations & he hasn't been blacklisted from credit card companies for wrongspeech.

Boy you sure _would_ look like a retarded faggot if you were posting on a forum that's ran almost entirely on donations made through crypto, but we live in a reasonable world where terrorism & child safety aren't used as duplicitous pretexts for life ruination & abrogation of natural human rights so nothing like what I described could ever happen⸮


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## Uncle Warren (Feb 17, 2022)

MarvinTheParanoidAndroid said:


> Gee willikers Mr. Uncle Warren, I sure do hope you never end up getting debanked for holding wrongful political opinions or being associated with the wrong people.
> 
> It sure is a good thing that Null can accept credit card donations & he hasn't been blacklisted from credit card companies for wrongspeech.
> 
> Boy you sure _would_ look like a retarded faggot if you were posting on a forum that's ran almost entirely on donations made through crypto, but we live in a reasonable world where terrorism & child safety aren't used as duplicitous pretexts for life ruination & abrogation of natural human rights so nothing like what I described could ever happen⸮


I am completely aware of how this site's finances are maintained. I'm very aware that in a situation where you have no other options, cryptocurrency exists as an option that can't simply be removed from the table when you're in a corner.

I also stand by my opinion, nigger, and while Null's situation demands the use of crypto, the fact that the FBI has started openly tracking crypto means that the initial appeal of the currency that made it popular in the first fucking place is at risk. If you would like to compare the situation at hand to the value of BTC, consider the last time there was a major dip related to government was when an entire country started regulating it. If you want to try appealing to Null's temper by blathering about how KF is run on crypto, he knows as much as I do the volatility of the coin, and with the FBI getting into shit you can imagine he wouldn't be happy about his only source of income getting fucked with by the US.

Now stop being a brown nosing faggot, go buy stocks like a normal person, and be thankful you AREN'T in a position like you described.



NOT Sword Fighter Super said:


> What, so you can have your future controlled by assholes like Leon Cooperman?


When money is involved, there will always be someone fucking with it. It's more of a pick your poison type deal.


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## MarvinTheParanoidAndroid (Feb 18, 2022)

Uncle Warren said:


> I am completely aware of how this site's finances are maintained. I'm very aware that in a situation where you have no other options, cryptocurrency exists as an option that can't simply be removed from the table when you're in a corner.
> 
> I also stand by my opinion, nigger, and while Null's situation demands the use of crypto, the fact that the FBI has started openly tracking crypto means that the initial appeal of the currency that made it popular in the first fucking place is at risk. If you would like to compare the situation at hand to the value of BTC, consider the last time there was a major dip related to government was when an entire country started regulating it. If you want to try appealing to Null's temper by blathering about how KF is run on crypto, he knows as much as I do the volatility of the coin, and with the FBI getting into shit you can imagine he wouldn't be happy about his only source of income getting fucked with by the US.
> 
> Now stop being a brown nosing faggot, go buy stocks like a normal person, and be thankful you AREN'T in a position like you described.


If I were brown nosing I would've @'d him, which I didn't so you can take that accusation and shove it back up your ass.

Also no, I'm not fucking with stocks when the government can just intervene and fuck with your investments and freeze your assets on a whim, which is exactly what happened with the GameStop stock hold.

Your solution to a system of finance being abrogated by government is to put your money on a system of finance that's on government puppet strings. Great solution. You're a contrarian for contrarianism's sake.


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## Uncle Warren (Feb 18, 2022)

MarvinTheParanoidAndroid said:


> Your solution to a system of finance


I never said anything was a solution, take the tinfoil hat off and maybe realize that when money is involved there really IS no solution, just bandaids, and not once have you said anything to prove my view on this situation with the FBI's involvement wrong.


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## MarvinTheParanoidAndroid (Feb 18, 2022)

Uncle Warren said:


> I never said anything was a solution, take the tinfoil hat off and maybe realize that when money is involved there really IS no solution, just bandaids, and not once have you said anything to prove my view on this situation with the FBI's involvement wrong.


I have a solution, Monero.


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## BelUwUga (Feb 28, 2022)

XMassAllYearRound said:


> Their bill didn't pass and now they decided they will go on ahead and do what the bill was supossed to do anyways?
> Man, something tells me privacy coins are about to get really popular now


People who had sophisticated operations and real concerns about feds are already using privacy coins if they use cryptocurrency. This seems more like they have finally put together a streamlined process from what I knew they had been doing for damn near close to a decade now. Unlike a street criminal, what could an isolated online merchant possibly bargain with? What intel could be gathered when they are arrested? Well the _only_ thing would be transaction/customer information. Sure they can assure you they deleted it but do you really think they are going to give up their sole insurance policy when they could just lie? Between that and actual wallet/account access from lucky arrests they started chipping away at the surface. Unlike seasoned criminals the customers are likely just junkies with poor opsec. It's also unlikely they only buy from one vendor/market. They'll roll even faster than the vendors. Regardless of what laundering/tumbling method you contrive, they'll always eventually be able to  unravel it given open access to a complete ledger and a steady flow of incoming intel.

I could never think of an efficient but effective way to cash in/out when I was looking into cryptocurrency so I never got into it and never recommended it to people that consulted with me (MtGox was still a reputable exchange at the time). I began thinking I might be right when the people who took the easiest (and obvious) routes ended up with charges. Eventually one of my smarter acquaintances confided in me they had his vendor's financials, analysts, and forensic accountants working his case. At that point I knew anything pseudononymous was _fucked_ because they expend those resources establishing precedent or making tools, not just for low-level charges. With everything gained from the silk road takedown I'd imagine they have quite the impressive toolset now and are looking to effectively setup a clearing house.


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## Dom Cruise (Feb 28, 2022)

You're telling me there's guys who get off on buying pictures of ape heads?


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