Exploiting Crises: Crime in the Crypto World

This chapter explores how criminals leverage crises, like COVID-19, to perpetrate scams using cryptocurrency, including a case linked to ISIS. It also examines hacking incidents, such as the $250 million theft by the Lazarus group from North Korea, highlighting vulnerabilities in security and the tactics criminals use to exploit them.

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Magistrate judge Zia Faruqui, and Jessi Brooks, assistant U.S. attorney in the national security section at the United States Attorney’s Office, have prosecuted several cryptocurrency-related cases, many of them amongst the most well-known. In this episode, they talk about:

how they came to be involved in the prosecution of so many cases involving cryptocurrency
the nature of civil forfeiture cases
the Al-Qassam Brigades case, which led to the largest ever seizure of a terrorist organization’s cryptocurrency accounts, and the terrorist organization’s use of dynamic addresses in an attempt to elude detection by authorities.
how Al Qaeda used Telegram to pursue cryptocurrency donations
the case involving ISIS and counterfeit PPE for COVID
the process of seizing funds from unhosted wallets
the North Korean affiliated Lazarus Group, and how they were able to amass $2580 million worth of cryptocurrency
the methods hackers will use to cash out stolen crypto funds to fiat
how different government agencies in the U.S., as well as in other countries, are coordinated when tackling these cases
the Welcome to Video case and how they went about prosecuting a person in a foreign country
how they’ve seen the use of cryptocurrencies by criminals evolve over time
and whether or not they think decentralized exchanges will make it easier for criminals and hackers to cash out