Working with strong international cooperation to regulate bitcoin (BTC) and the cryptocurrency sector is the main recommendation offered by the United States Attorney General, Merrick Garland, to President Joe Biden.
Garland’s message is part of the report prepared by the Department of Justice of the United States, published this June 6 in response to the Executive Order issued by the president.
In its message, the organization raises the need for both internal US organizations and foreign entities that are responsible for preventing crimes, work in coordination to exercise proper regulation of the ecosystem.
The document also emphasizes on the issue of committing crimes with cryptocurrenciesfrom its highest level of adoption.
For this reason, the Attorney General considers it essential that more information is shared with foreign law enforcement agencies. Better collaboration will help “avoid duplication of effort that wastes investigative resources,” he advises President Biden.
As your Executive Order points out, the growing use of digital assets in the global financial sector has profound implications for investors, consumers and businesses and increases the risk of crimes such as money laundering, ransomware, terrorist financing, fraud and theft, and evasion of sanctions.
Merrick Garland, US Attorney General
Add the writing that the Department of Justice began to work cooperatively with the Department of State, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Homeland Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
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They say that efforts are now directed at determining the best way to strengthen international cooperation in law enforcement. The idea is to expand operational capacity and close regulatory gaps between jurisdictions.
International cooperation: strategy to combat crimes with cryptocurrencies
According to the report, international cooperation is an important strategy to “overcome the obstacles that the characteristics of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies pose to law enforcement efforts and to combat their misuse.”
For the Prosecutor and the Department of Justice, an international strategy is essential to “detect, investigate, prosecute and in some way disrupt criminal activity related to digital assets.”
It is explained, in this sense, that the crimes facilitated through the use of cryptoactive are much more difficult to process than those wrapped in paper money.
“Criminal actors take advantage of the innovation, decentralization claims, and anonymity features of cryptocurrencies to facilitate criminal conduct in all corners of the world,” they note.
Many crimes—money laundering, ransomware, terrorist financing, and sanctions evasion among them—can be committed much faster because they bypass traditional financial intermediaries, which have rules in place to flag suspicious transactions.
Report Department of Justice.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the advantages of the platforms are highlighted blockchain. This, because the transactions are “permanently recorded in distributed books publicly available on the Internet.”
That fact creates more opportunities for law enforcement officers to “follow money in ways not possible with traditional financial systems,” the report says.
The Justice Department report represents one of the first responses from US agencies to the presidential request.
Through the decree, Biden asked the country’s federal agencies last March to evaluate the risks and opportunities that cryptocurrencies represent for the national security of the United States and their impact on the nation’s economy.