President Joe Biden’s administration has published the United States’ Anti-Corruption Strategy. In the first such document for the country, cryptocurrencies are mentioned.
The strategy defines a common approach for government bodies within five pillars. One of them, concerning the prosecution of corrupt officials, includes digital assets.
“The Justice Department will use the newly created National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Group to focus on comprehensive investigations and prosecutions of the criminal use of digital assets,” the document says.
The task force will focus on “crimes committed by exchanges, mixing services and money laundering infrastructure actors”.
Earlier, the presidential administration drew attention to cryptocurrencies due to their use in ransomware attacks. This happened after a series of similar incidents involving large American companies. In May 2021, the fuel pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline paid cybercriminals $ 5 million in Bitcoin, and the world’s largest meat producer JBS – $ 11 million.
According to reports, the authorities intend to combat bitcoin extortion by monitoring the ransom paid by victims, as well as limiting payments to hackers.
As a reminder, in the United States, investigations into ransomware attacks have received the same priority level as terrorism cases. The relationship of cryptocurrencies with the latter was announced by the Minister of Finance Janet Yellen before taking office.
United States Strategy on Countering Corruption by Cryplogger on Scribd
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