Police in Australia are forming a digital asset unit amid rising cases of money laundering

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has created a new unit dedicated to cracking down on digital asset-related crime.

The AFP has been cracking down on digital asset laundering and other related crimes for several years now. However, these activities have not been coordinated by one unit, which would make them more effective, the AFP’s Criminal Assets Confiscation Command Stefan Jerga told the Australian Financial Review.

“The environment was such that we felt like an independent team [was required], rather than many officers picking up some of this skill set as part of their overall role. So we now have a dedicated team that continues to grow,” said Jerga.

The new entity is in line with similar global developments as more regulators focus on the fast-growing industry. In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has recently tapped a former police officer to lead its new digital assets unit from October. Earlier this year, the FBI launched the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, led by longtime prosecutor Eun Young Choi. The SEC has also revamped and renamed its Crypto Assets and Cyber ​​Unit, and doubled its staff.

Australia’s new unit will focus on seizing criminal assets, but it will also play a major role in other related investigations, Jerga revealed.

“It’s focused on assets, but it also provides the valuable investigative tracking capability and lens for all of our commands across all of our businesses, whether they’re national security-related, child protection, cyber — or the ability to track cryptocurrency transactions across the relevant blockchains are very, very important,” he said.

The AFP’s Criminal Assets Forfeiture Unit has exceeded expectations, seizing over AUD 600 million since February 2020. Only a marginal portion of this has been linked to digital assets, but the AFP is taking no chances.

The launch of the new unit comes just months after the deputy director general of Australia’s financial intelligence agency, AUSTRAC, claimed that criminals were exploiting digital assets to launder money.

John Moss cited Chainalysis figures which found that criminal activities accounted for 0.15% of global transaction volumes. This was four times higher than the proportion of 0.035% of transactions at the four biggest banks linked to crimes. However, with Australia’s GDP at $1.8 trillion, banks’ share, while smaller in proportion, is much larger in actual size.

See: BSV Global Blockchain Convention panel, Law & Order: Regulatory Compliance for Blockchain & Digital Assets

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