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More Cybercriminals Pay Steep Price for Running Crypto Scams and Laundering Cash

Posted  01/21/25
Cryptocurrencies
The government has already ramped up its efforts in 2025 to tackle cryptocurrency fraud and associated money laundering schemes with several recent enforcement actions. Cybercriminals exploit digital currency investment hopefuls. Their scams come in myriad forms such as ransomware attacks and virtual currency thefts, and the criminals use complex tactics to conceal their crimes to fuel their stolen profits. As...

A $1B+ Fraud Conspiracy: Yvette Wang Sentenced To 10 Years in Prison

Posted  01/14/25
Hanging Hundred Dollar Bills on Clothes Line
Federal prosecutors continue the crack down on fraudsters that prey on innocent investors. On January 6, Daniel M. Gitner, Chief, Criminal Division, in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, announced that Yvette Wang a/k/a “Yanping” was sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. In addition to Wang’s prison...

What a sham(e)! Two Defendants Sentenced to Prison for Cryptocurrency Ponzi Scheme “IcomTech”

Posted  12/9/24
Cryptocurrency
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, announced that defendants David Brend (50, of Tampa, Florida) and Gustavo Rodriguez (48, of North Hollywood, California) were sentenced to prison for 10 years and 8 years, respectively, for their involvement in a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme named IcomTech. The sentences were given by the Honorable Jennifer L. Rochon after a two-week trial...

CFTC Says Beware of Romance Scams

Posted  02/13/24
Three Red Heart Balloons Floating
With Valentine's Day upon us, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) last week (February 8) issued an Advisory Alert warning for those seeking romance to tread carefully on dating apps and social media.  Especially when it comes to strangers asking for financial support or giving investment advice. The CFTC urged particular caution with promotions for cryptocurrency investments because of the growing risk...

Top Ten SEC and CFTC Recoveries of 2023

Posted  01/24/24
Foreign Exchange Graph
It was an active year for fraud enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).  Though by no means was it a record year for either regulator in terms of big-ticket wins.  Aside from the CFTC's $1.7 billion recovery from South African crypto company Mirror Trading for foul play with foreign currency transactions, the balance of the Top-10 recoveries was...

Top Ten Tax Enforcement Actions of 2022

Posted  02/8/23
us cash with "taxes" sign on top
Tax fraud can take many forms, but each form results in shortchanging government coffers.  More seriously, with our tax system depending heavily on taxpayers’ willingness to voluntarily file tax returns and pay taxes, tax fraud undermines confidence in the system.  Enforcement of tax laws builds confidence in the system, and deserves to be a law enforcement priority. The top tax recoveries in 2022 start with...

Top Ten SEC and CFTC Recoveries of 2022

Posted  02/1/23
stock market numbers
In 2022, the SEC and CFTC redoubled their efforts to preserve market integrity and shut down financial frauds.  Both in size and composition, the agencies’ major recoveries look quite different from a year prior.  2021 was all about crypto, with four of the top ten recoveries relating to crypto offerings or exchanges.  With the recent collapse of the crypto market—exposing some of the biggest frauds since the...

Top Ten Money Laundering Enforcement Actions of 2022

Posted  01/10/23
person following a trail of money
2022 was a big year for money-laundering enforcement.  It marked the first full year that the new FinCEN money laundering whistleblower office was up and running.  And, even more remarkably, by the end of the year, the FinCEN program expanded to welcome whistleblowers with information related to sanctions violations after Constantine Cannon attorneys called for this legal change following the Russian invasion of...

The Scale of Crypto Fraud

Posted  09/27/22
Hundred Dollars Bills and Crypto Coins
Whistleblower associate Liz Soltan, along with Alex Cala of Taxpayers Against Fraud, recently wrote about the massive scale of cryptocurrency fraud on the TAF blog. As use of crypto has increased, so too have scams. Between Jan. 31, 2021 and March 31, 2022, over 46,000 people made reports to the FTC about losing money in crypto fraud, with losses totaling over $1 billion. And that’s just victims who chose to make...

Crypto projects are toying with public funds. The False Claims Act will be a powerful tool in holding them to account

Posted  09/21/22
cryptocurrency and stocks
Last month, the Fairfax County Retirement System shared that they will be putting $70 million of their $6.8 billion fund into two crypto yield farming funds. In other words, pension money that allows teachers, firefighters, and police officers to retire will be invested into volatile digital tokens known as yield-farming projects. Yield-farming projects offer yields that are significantly higher than those...
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