The IRS handles hundreds of crypto-related cases
- The Internal Revenue Services is currently working on hundreds of crypto-related cases.
- After this, the most frequent case that comes up is often related to exiting.
- On November 3, the annual report for the division was reportedly low.
The Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service is currently full of crypto-related cases.
The cases have not been made public yet, but they will be done soon, the bulk of which are tax-related issues, according to Jim Lee, the division chief.
Apart from this, the most frequent case that comes up often relates to off-ramping (a method of moving value from crypto to fiat currency) and crypto-based wages, Bloomberg Tax reported.
There, the investigators have witnessed a real change over the past three years. But before this, the majority of the cases were related to money laundering and tax, but now they have been reduced to half of that pile.
Crypto has always been a tool for criminal activity. Criminals use crypto for fraud and scams. But money laundering is what is often outnumbered for crypto-based activity over time, as blockchain analytics firms like Chainalysis create more mature equipment to track criminal activity.
The revenue department declared that despite being a huge problem, crypto money laundering is still not affecting as much as the fiat based money laundering is affecting now.
Conversely, crypto adoption has currently become much easier as some equipment makes it very easy to use. Thus, it has now become a means of payment globally. People use it to buy household items, sports tickets and much more.
Since transactions in the chain are fake and thus not so clear for a government to see who gets how much money. But Lee said this department can track all cryptocurrency transactions.
On November 3, the division’s annual report was reportedly low, and has reported few of its most successful takeovers in 2022.
The most popular case
The most popular was associated with the arrest of ‘IIya Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan. The claim was money laundering of the stolen money in the Bitfinex hack of 2016. This was the most famous and largest digital asset-related financial seizure in history ever.
In line with Lee, the department has captured the crypto amount of about $7 billion since the beginning of 2022.
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while graduating. A keen observer of detail, he shares his passion for writing alongside being a developer. His backend knowledge of blockchain helps him bring a unique perspective to his writing
