Kevin Helms
A student of Austrian economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open source systems, network effects and the intersection of finance and cryptography.
IRS Builds ‘Hundreds’ Of Crypto Cases – Official Says $7 Billion In Crypto Seized By 2022 – Taxes Bitcoin News
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is building “hundreds” of crypto cases to crack down on tax evasion, an official said. In fiscal year 2022, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division seized about $7 billion in cryptocurrency, which was double the previous year.
The IRS is building “hundreds” of cases to crack down on cryptocurrency tax evasion
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation Division (CI), the IRS’s law enforcement arm, is building “hundreds” of crypto cases, Bloomberg reported Thursday. The publication quoted CI chief Jim Lee as saying that many of the cases will soon be made public.
Lee explained during a press conference that the cases largely revolve around cryptocurrencies being exchanged for fiat currencies and people failing to report payments in crypto. The CI chief noted that while most of the cases were previously related to money laundering, he has “really seen a shift” in digital asset investigations over the past three years.
The Criminal Investigation Division’s annual report, released Thursday, says the IRS “seized record amounts of data and cryptocurrency.” Lee told the news outlet that CI seized about $7 billion in cryptocurrency in fiscal year 2022, which was double the previous fiscal year. The CI financial year began on 1 October 2021 and ended on 30 September 2022.
The IRS established the Office of Cyber and Forensic Services (CFS) last year to consolidate several areas of investigation, including digital assets, cybercrime, digital investigation and physical investigation. Lee claimed that the office is capable of tracking virtually any crypto transaction.
The report details:
Among its priorities, CFS supports criminal investigative agencies around the illicit use of digital assets and how they can be used to exploit the US tax and financial system.
“CFS is constantly taking steps to evolve, especially as threats evolve in areas such as decentralized finance [defi], peer-to-peer payments and anonymity-enhanced cryptocurrencies. Due to relatively limited resources, CFS focuses on cases where they can have the most significant impact,” the report adds, elaborating:
CI prioritized training and deployment of cryptocurrency, blockchain and open source intelligence technologies to uncover complex cyber-financial criminal schemes.
“When a foreign corrupt government official receives bribes, they often use a third party to move or launder these illegal proceeds to purchase real estate, cryptocurrencies and many other assets. If any of the funds move in or through [the] The US financial system, CI can track the money, the report further states.
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