Crypto Currency Crime

I recently found two articles highlighting how virtual cash or crypto currency can be a tool to gain illegal economic advantages.

The first example is with cyber thieves using virtual cash for money laundering. In fact  Dr McGuire drawing from an early 2018 study stated that “between $80bn (£57bn) and $200bn of cash generated by cyber-crime is laundered every year .” In addition, the growth of property sites that accept virtual cash payments for apartments and even private islands could help criminals launder large amounts of money. In addition, illegal revenues that previously would flow through established financial institutions can now confuse authorities as they flow through external, cyber jurisdictions. Currently, authorities around the world are finding different ways to shut down these forms of cyber crimes, especially since the use of bitcoin by criminals has been drawing serious attention to police.

The second example is with Trump’s recent executive order to ban purchases of Venezuela’s new crypto currency because America has a sanction against them. The US Treasury also warned domestic investors in February not to touch petro in case it violated sanctions, saying “the petro digital currency would appear to be an extension of credit to the Venezuelan government” and “could therefore expose US persons to legal risk.”

Both these examples display the ability for crypto currency to circumvent legal means of financial trade if there is no regulation and laws like Trump’s order – proof of this is with the rising price of Bitcoin being attributed to increasing crypto currency crime.

However, individuals have stated that in the end criminals need to change their virtual cash to real money and that will be the ultimate regulation against crypto currency crime.

Articles:

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43428264

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/19/17139892/trump-bans-venezuela-nicolas-maduro-national-cryptocurrency-bitcoin-petro

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/01/26/bitcoin-fraud-triples-criminals-target-cryptocurrency-boom/

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