The US Justice Department is cracking down on crypto-crimes

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

With a lack of regulation and understanding running rampant in the cryptocurrency world, crypto has been used to manipulate and steal from people in all kinds of crimes. Now, the US Department of Justice has stepped in with the creation of a brand new team assigned specifically to combat crypto-crime.

Earlier this week, the Justice Department announced the creation of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET). Pulling from divisions who expertise in certain areas across the department, NCET will include several members with varying skill sets to investigate crypto-crime.

The team will consist of various members of different divisions within the Justice Department, including some from the department’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, and the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. Its sole task will be to investigate crimes involving cryptocurrency.

According to the Justice Department’s announcement, “cryptocurrency is used in a wide variety of criminal activity,” including, “ransomware payments, to money laundering and the operation of illegal or unregistered money services businesses.” It will be this team’s job to investigate those crimes and any more involving crypto going forward.

NCET will fall under the supervision of Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr. As of now, the Department is still looking for a highly qualified individual to fill the position of team leader.

The Justice Department is looking to hire someone with “experience with complex criminal investigations and prosecutions, as well as the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies and the blockchain.” That’ll be quite the resumé.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Thousands of Coinbase customers just got ripped off in a massive hack
• TikTok will soon offer NFTs of iconic videos from some of its biggest creators
• Coinbase users can now buy crypto with their PayPal account
• PayPal will now let you buy anything with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin