WASHINGTON—International law enforcement efforts related to digital assets must be increased, according to a new report from the Justice Department.
The report, mandated by the President Biden’s executive order on digital asset development, recommends more efforts along the lines already being pursued, CoinTelegraph reported. It is the first of 12 such reports mandated by the Biden administration.
The report, titled “How To Strengthen International Law Enforcement Cooperation For Detecting, Investigating, And Prosecuting Criminal Activity Related To Digital Assets,” was written with the collaboration of the Departments of State, Treasury and Homeland Security, as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
The Most Common Criminal Activities
Countries have varying degrees of capacity to deal with criminal activity due to the unique law enforcement challenges associated with the nature of digital asset transactions, such as their anonymity and ability to cross borders instantaneously, the report said, according to CoinTelegraph.
The report listed money laundering, ransomware activities, cybercrime, fraud, theft, terrorist financing and sanctions evasion among the criminal activities in question.
Weak Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) enforcement, limited legislative frameworks and lack of expertise in the face of an evolving threat landscape are also impediments to effective transnational crime-fighting efforts, CoinTelegraph added.