A basic truism — you do not want to become the subject of a Justice Department investigation. The wheels of justice — prosecutors and law enforcement — can cause real harm to organizations and individuals that violate the law.
DOJ is aligning resources to investigate and prosecute cryptocurrency criminal activity. This should not come as a surprise to anyone.
The Justice Department announced with much fanfare the creation of DOJ’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (“NCET”) that was organized to target cryptocurrency exchanges, crypto infrastructure and others that facilitated the movement and disguise of illicit financial schemes. The NCET consists of prosecutors from various DOJ components, including the money Laundering and Asset recovery Section, the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, and other prosecutors detailed from individual U.S. Attorneys’ Offices.
The NCET is focused on crypto-based fraud and money laundering schemes.
Earlier this summer, DOJ brought criminal charges against six defendants in four separate cases for crypto-currency fraud. In one case, DOJ prosecuted the largest non-fungible token (“NFT”) scheme. The other criminal cases involved a fraudulent investment fund that alleged exchanges, a global Ponzi scheme involving the sale of unregistered crypto securities, and a fraudulent initial coin offering.
A quick summary of each case is set out below:
