US Secret Service Has Seized Cryptocurrency Worth Over $102 Million in 254 Fraud Cases

The U.S. Secret Service seized more than $102 million worth of cryptocurrency in 254 fraud-related investigations. “Criminals are looking to muddy the waters and try to hide their activities,” said the Assistant Director of the Secret Service’s Office of Investigations. “We want to track this down as quickly as we can, as aggressively as we can, in a linear fashion.”

The U.S. Secret Service seized $102 million worth of cryptocurrency

Senior U.S. Secret Service official David M. Smith spoke about cryptocurrency in an interview with CNBC published Tuesday.

Smith is a senior executive and special agent currently serving as the 28th Assistant Director of the U.S. Secret Service’s Office of Investigations, where he leads the agency’s global investigative mission, which includes 161 offices and more than 3,000 employees.

The Secret Service is responsible for identifying, investigating and arresting anyone who violates certain laws related to financial systems. “In recent years, digital assets have increasingly been used to facilitate a growing number of crimes, including various fraud schemes and the use of ransomware,” its website says.

Smith told the publication that Secret Service agents and analysts are actively tracking the movement of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on the blockchain, specifying

When you track a digital currency wallet, it’s not unlike an email address, which has some relevant identifiers.

“And once a person and another person make a transaction and it goes on the blockchain, we have the ability to trace that email address or wallet address, if you will, and track it through the blockchain,” the assistant director confirmed.

According to statistics compiled by the agency, the Secret Service has seized more than $102 million in cryptocurrency from criminals since 2015 in connection with 254 fraud-related investigations, the publication reported.

Smith noted that “one of the features of cryptocurrency is that it moves money faster than the traditional format,” stressing that the high transaction speed makes cryptocurrency attractive to American consumers and criminals alike. “Criminals tend to muddy the waters and try to hide their activities,” he noted. “We, on the other hand, want to track it as fast as we can, as aggressively as we can, in a linear fashion.”

The assistant director explained that once the Secret Service discovers illegal activity, it works to “dig a little deeper into these transactions and lay them out.” Smith said:

If you send me something bad in an email, I know there’s some criminal activity associated with that address, I can lay it all out, find any pieces of information that you used when you originally logged in or registered with that email address.

Smith went on to say that investigators are finding more and more thieves converting stolen BTC and other cryptocurrencies into stabelcoins. He said: “Because, you know, criminals are human too. They want to avoid the market volatility associated with some of the major coins.”

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