Justice Department creates national cryptocurrency enforcement team

The U.S. Justice Department forms a national cryptocurrency enforcement team (NCET) to investigate and prosecute criminal misuses of cryptocurrency and claw back the illicit proceeds from those crimes. The team will particularly focus on crimes committed by virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services, and money laundering actors. The team will also assist in tracing and recovery of assets lost to fraud and extortion, including cryptocurrency payments to ransomware groups. "Today we are launching the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team to draw on the Department’s cyber and money laundering expertise to strengthen our capacity to dismantle the financial entities that enable criminal actors to flourish — and quite frankly to profit — from abusing cryptocurrency platforms," said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco in a statement. The new team will bring together the expertise of the DOJ Criminal Division's Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section,