Playing crypto games can be riskier than investing in cryptocurrencies, according to the Filipino ACG, considering the ease with which gamers can lose their digital tokens and NFTs.
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The ideal candidate to join the National Crime Agency will be an existing member of the police staff who is a certified accredited financial investigator (AFI).
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The Terraform Labs co-founder is out on bail after a successful appeal in Montenegro but will be closely monitored until his next court appearance.
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KuCoin Ventures and Circle Ventures are among the investors in the Chinese offshore yuan-pegged stablecoin, which is reportedly under investigation in China.
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While Terraforms’ Do Kwon and Han Chang-jun are facing charges in Montenegro, the other co-founder, Shin Hyun-seung, still walks free in South Korea.
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Calgary’s police department has launched the Western Canada Cryptocurrency Investigations Centre, in partnership with blockchain data firm Chainalysis.
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The Singapore Police Force has warned investors to be weary of fake websites claiming they can help them recover funds from the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX. On Nov. 19, the police issued a warning about a website claiming to be hosted by the United States Department of Justice that prompts FTX users to log in with their account credentials, local news agency Channel News Asia reported. The website, which was not identified, targets local investors affected by the FTX collapse, claiming that customers “would be able to withdraw their funds after paying legal fees.” The police said the website was a phishing scam designed to fool unsuspecting users into giving away their private information. Local authorities have also warned against fake online articles that promote cryptocurrency auto trading programs in the country, which appear to have proliferated recently. These articles often feature prominent Singaporean politicians, such as parliament speaker Tan Chuan-jin.Related: HK and Singapore’s mega-rich are eyeing crypto investments: KPMGAlthough this isn’t the first time Singapore’s police have issued public warnings against crypto scams, recent developments in the industry have made investors more vulnerable to attacks. An estimated 1 million investors and creditors have been affected by FTX’s bankruptcy. Collectively, they face billions in losses. Despite promoting itself as a hub for cryptocurrency and Web3 innovation, Singapore has pursued stricter regulations around retail trading and self-hosted wallets. The city-state has repeatedly warned investors that digital assets are highly speculative and has even banned crypto advertising on social media. Nevertheless, several crypto firms have applied for licensing in the city-state, with stablecoin issuers Circle Internet Financial and Paxos recently gaining approvals from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
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Nikolai Mushegian, a co-founder of the cryptocurrency lending platform MakerDAO and the decentralized Dai (DAI) stablecoin, was found dead in Puerto Rico last week.Mushegian died due to drowning after being dragged by sea currents on the Condado beach in San Juan, the local newspaper El Nuevo Día reported. Mushegian had no vital signs by the time his body was rescued.The Condado beach is considered one of the world’s most dangerous places for swimmers, reportedly taking the lives of at least eight people in 2021.The unfortunate event was reported to local authorities on the morning on Oct. 28. According to a police report, Mushegian was a resident of San Juan. The scene was reportedly investigated by the San Juan Homicide Division and a local prosecutor.Mushegian was an important figure in the cryptocurrency community, contributing to multiple industry projects, with some referring to him as a “DAI architect.” The 29-year-old crypto developer is known for his work with MakerDAO forks Rico and Rai, as well as the proof-of-stake blockchain network BitShares. Mushegian is also a co-founder of the automated market maker Balancer.MakerDAO founder and CEO Rune Christensen took to Twitter on Oct. 31 to say that Mushegian contributed important inputs to the Maker development and has done some crucial work since the early days of Ethereum.Nikolai was one of the only people in the early days of Ethereum and smart contracts who was able to predict the possibility of smart contract hacks and invented the security-oriented approach to smart contract design we know today. Maker would have been toast without him— Rune (@RuneKek) October 31, 2022Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson wrote on Twitter that he knew Mushegian from back in the Bitshares days. “He was a very young and extremely bright man who had a very wide array of interests from game theory to Urbit,” Hoskinson said, adding that the coder had a deep understanding of technology.Tether co-creator Craig Sellars noted that Mushegian’s death came just a few days after MakerDAO community voted to approve custody of $1.6 billion in USD Coin (USDC) with Coinbase crypto exchange.Related: MakerDAO revenue tumbles 86% on Ether and Wrapped BTC woesMushegian was an active community member on social media. His Twitter account, Delete_shitcoin, has about 5,500 followers at the time of writing. His last tweet was published just a few hours before his death, referring to suggestions of alleged blackmail from the Central Intelligence Agency and Mossad. Mushegian previously made similar statements on Twitter, hinting at a potential “suicide” by the CIA as one of his possible futures.
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The detective chief superintendent for the United Kingdom’s National Police Chiefs’ Council has said all police forces in the country have officers trained for investigations involving the enforcement and seizure of cryptocurrencies.In an Oct. 25 parliamentary debate on the U.K. Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, Andy Gould of the NPCC said that the country’s police force had the capability to address economic crimes involving crypto, but not the capacity. He reported that the authorities had used £100 million — roughly $116 million at the time of publication — over the last four years to create “cryptocurrency tactical advisers across the whole of policing.”“There are now officers in every force and every regional organised crime unit who are trained and equipped to [investigate and seize crypto tied to crimes],” said Gould. “We have nationally procured the investigative tools to enable them to progress the investigations, and we have a national storage platform to store that once we have seized it.”The bill, announced by King Charles in May and introduced to Parliament by U.K. lawmakers in September, was aimed at driving “dirty money” out of the country and included giving authorities the ability “to compel businesses to hand over information which could be related to money laundering or terrorist financing,” including on crypto. The U.K. government has suggested the legislation was connected to sanctioning individuals tied to Russia and its President Vladimir Putin following the invasion of Ukraine.Gould added that the police, despite their capability to address illicit uses of crypto, faced challenges including incentives to join the private sector and keeping up with the industry:“We are in a position where we have actually seized hundreds of millions of pounds worth of cryptocurrency assets within the last year or so. The challenge we have is that it is getting harder and harder to do. The assets themselves are becoming more diverse and more technically complex, so our officers are in a bit of an arms race trying to keep up.”Related: British MP Lisa Cameron on Bitcoin and UK becoming international crypto hubThough the U.K. government saw three leaders in less than two months with the resignations of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak becoming the country’s 57th prime minister on Oct. 25, parliament has continued to advance crypto-related legislation. The House of Commons moved forward on the Financial Services and Markets Bill, furthering the U.K.’s intention to become a global crypto hub by addressing regulations around digital assets and stablecoins.
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The 2.8 million citizens of India’s Firozabad district may now be able to sleep a little tighter after the launch of a new police complaint portal that uses blockchain technology to prevent manipulation.On Oct. 12, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal announced in a series of tweets that the Polygon blockchain protocolo is now being used by Firozabad police in Uttar Pradesh to fight against local police corruption and crime. Called the First Information Report (FIR), the portal allows victims of crimes to register complaints against local police officers without the complaints either being dismissed or manipulated by potentially corrupt officers. Nailwal shared that the project was very close to his heart because he grew up hearing stories of victims not getting justice due to local police corruption, many of who were victims of rape.Police Complaints(FIR) on blockchain powered by @0xPolygon This is very close to my heart. We grow up hearing about so many of such cases wherein due to some corruption in a local police department, victims(mostly of rapes) are not even able to register complaint or…1/2 https://t.co/k9gRMD6r08— Sandeep | Polygon 3️⃣ (@sandeepnailwal) October 12, 2022The video shared by Nailwal was posted by the Firozabad police, featuring a snippet from the senior superintendent of Firozabad police, Ashish Tiwari.Nailwal said the FIR going on the blockchain ensures that the reports can not be manipulated or denied by lower-level officers and “could be a game-changer in ensuring right to justice.”In the announcement, Nailwal also thanked the police commissioner for going beyond the call of duty to implement and innovate with technology to ensure equitable justice.The announcement from the Firozabad police has also been picked up by others in the crypto community, with many seeing it as great news for Polygon, blockchain technology and the citizens of Firozabad. Twitter user srinigoes, a veteran of the Indian navy, commented to their 15,200 followers it was “an amazing initiative” to get complaints registered on the blockchain, which would ensure transparency.“The biggest problem in the interiors of India was whoever registered the FIR (First Information Report) first, had first mover advantage,” he said. 1/2This is an amazing initiative. To get the complaints registered on blockchain. At least the blockchain will ensure transparency. The biggest problem in the interiors of India was whoever registered the FIR (First Information Report) first, had first mover advantage. https://t.co/vMbEWRG4Rr— Srini ~ Akash the Ape (@srinigoes) October 12, 2022
Kashif Raza, founder of crypto education startup Bitinning, noted on Twitter that the first complaint portal on Polygon has now been launched, meaning:“1) Complaints are now immutable. 2) Verifiable. 3) Easy to file.”Related: Australian state police sets up crypto division to trace transactionsOn Oct 6, Cointelegraph reported that Polygon announced a partnership with the Ocean Conservation Exploration and Education Foundation (OCEEF) to promote ocean literacy through new creative, entertaining and engaging ways to give people exposure to deep underwater missions.
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Do Kwon, the co-founder of the Terra ecosystem, took to Twitter on Saturday asserting he’s “not ‘on the run’ or anything similar” after the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said Kwon wasn’t in the city-state.On Sept. 14, South Korean authorities issued an arrest warrant for Kwon and five other associates for alleged violations of the country’s capital markets laws. All were known to be in Singapore at the time, with prosecutors also attempting to revoke their passports a day later on Sept. 15.“For any government agency that has shown interest to communicate, we are in full cooperation and we don’t have anything to hide,” Kwon tweeted.I am not “on the run” or anything similar – for any government agency that has shown interest to communicate, we are in full cooperation and we don’t have anything to hide— Do Kwon (@stablekwon) September 17, 2022Kwon did not reveal where he was, saying crypto Twitter has “no business knowing my GPS coordinates.” He added they are defending themselves in “multiple jurisdictions” and look forward to “clarifying the truth over the next few months.”We are in the process of defending ourselves in multiple jurisdictions – we have held ourselves to an extremely high bar of integrity, and look forward to clarifying the truth over the next few months— Do Kwon (@stablekwon) September 17, 2022
Singapore does not have an extradition treaty with South Korea, but the SPF stated it will assist Korean authorities within the scope of its domestic laws and international obligations and didn’t provide any further details.In May, the Terra ecosystem Kwon co-founded arguably had the biggest crash in cryptocurrency history after its algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD Classic (USTC), originally TerraUSD (UST) lost its US dollar peg to hit a low of $0.006 in June.Its sister asset, now known as Terra Luna Classic (LUNC) met a similar fate with an all-time low of $0.0000009 in May after hitting its all-time high of over $119 the month prior. The twin collapses caused panic among traders, with selling pressure leading to a wider collapse in the digital asset market.Related: Collapse of Terra blockchain ecosystem forces talent migrationPreviously, South Korean prosecutors banned Terra employees from leaving the country in June to stop the possibility of them fleeing to avoid investigation, Do Kwon was already residing in Singapore at the time.In July, South Korean authorities raided 15 firms including seven crypto exchanges connected to the collapse of Terra reportedly gaining access to data related to USTC and LUNC transactions.
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Law enforcement in Australia is working to boost cryptocurrency expertise and trace crypto transactions by setting up a dedicated police group.The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has established a new cryptocurrency unit to focus on monitoring crypto-related transactions, The Australian Financial Review reported on Monday.Stefan Jerga, the national manager of the AFP’s criminal asset confiscation command, said that the use of crypto in criminal activity had significantly increased since the AFP made its first crypto seizure in early 2018. In response to this, AFP decided to set up a dedicated crypto team in August, Jerga noted.The increased focus on illicit crypto transactions comes amid AFP seizing a lot more in criminal assets than the authority originally expected. The AFP officially reported on Monday that it reached its goal to seize $600 million from financial crimes two years ahead of schedule. The target was originally set by AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce and was expected to be reached by 2024.Since February 2020, the AFP has seized $380 million in residential and commercial property, $200 million in cash and bank accounts, and $35 million in cars, boats, aircraft, artworks, luxury items and cryptocurrencies. Jerga noted that crypto seizures were small compared to “traditional” criminal assets like property and cash, but the additional focus is expected to provide more insights.According to the AFP manager, the environment triggered the creation of a standalone team, opposed to a lot of officers “picking up some of this skill set as part of their overall role.” He added that the ability to trace crypto transactions across blockchains is “really, really important” alongside national security, child protection and others.Earlier this year, an official at the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) expressed skepticism about cryptocurrencies over their transparency. AUSTRAC deputy chief executive John Moss argued that cryptocurrencies could be used anonymously, quickly and across international borders which made them “attractive for criminals” including neo-Nazi groups.Related: Law enforcement should give up trying to access everyone’s data, says legal expertContrary to popular belief supposing that Bitcoin (BTC) is anonymous, Bitcoin transactions are not anonymous but rather are publicly trackable through blockchain explorers. While it’s technically possible to run an anonymous BTC wallet, it is becoming increasingly difficult to conduct BTC transactions anonymously as transactions are quite often associated with users’ Know Your Customer data.
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