America's Justice Department Shuts Down Its Cryptocurrency Fraud Unit (usatoday.com)
- Reference: 0177009171
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/04/12/1722247/americas-justice-department-shuts-down-its-cryptocurrency-fraud-unit
- Source link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/08/cryptocurrency-fraud-unit-shut-down/82991750007/
A Monday night memo from U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the shut down was "effective immediately."
> Blanche directed the closure of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and ordered prosecutors to pivot to investigating transnational criminal organizations and terrorist groups that use crypto to engage in illicit transactions... In his four-page memo, Blanche said the new order was meant to bring the Justice Department in line with Trump's own Executive Order 14178, which decreed that clarity and certainty regarding enforcement policy "are essential to supporting a vibrant and inclusive digital economy and innovation in digital assets." Blanche, one of several Trump criminal defense lawyers at the top ranks of DOJ, said the president "has also made clear that '[w]e are going to end the regulatory weaponization against digital assets'..."
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> Consistent with that narrowing of its cryptocurrency enforcement policy, the DOJ Market Integrity and Major Frauds Unit will also cease cryptocurrency enforcement to focus on other administration priorities, including immigration and procurement fraud, Blanche said.
The Washington Post [2]got this assessment from Yesha Yadav , a Vanderbilt University law professor who closely follows cryptocurrency and financial markets. "It's hard to underestimate the importance this task force has had ... in pursuing some really huge crypto hacks and cases."
More from USA Today :
> Public corruption and transnational crime experts warned that shutting down the unit could divert critical resources from efforts to stop criminals and corrupt regimes from using cryptocurrency for illicit gain, even as Trump claims he wants to crack down on them. "Dangerous US adversaries rely on cryptocurrencies to launder money and evade sanctions," said Nate Sibley, an anti-corruption expert and director of the Kleptocracy Initiative at the conservative Hudson Institute think tank in Washington, D.C., [3]in a post on X . "If this is accurate, hard to see how it squares with — for example-cracking down on cartel finances or maximum pressure sanctions on Iran...."
>
> Trump's so-called "memecoin" surged from less than $10 on the Saturday before his inauguration to as high as $74.59 before eventually giving up some of its gains. The token, branded $TRUMP, has been criticized by ethics experts as a conflict of interest for the president since the company could likely benefit from his pro-crypto policies...
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> Last month, Trump signed an order to create a [4]federal Strategic Bitcoin Reserve , signaling new federal support for cryptocurrency in general and Bitcoin in particular.
Since the first-ever White House crypto summit in March, America's Securities and Exchange Commission "has dropped more than a dozen cases against crypto firms," [5]notes the Washington Post :
> Last month, both the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency pledged to stop evaluating banks based on "reputational risk" — a practice that some venture capitalists have claimed unfairly "de-banked" founders of cryptocurrency start-ups.
In other news, executives from cryptocurrency exchange Binance "met with Treasury Department officials last month," [6]reports the Wall Street Journal , asking them to remove a U.S. monitor overseeing their compliance with anti-money-laundering laws, according to people familiar with the talks.
The article adds that Binance is also concurrently "exploring" a deal with the Trump family to list its new dollar-pegged stablecoin which "could catapult it into a huge market and potentially bring in billions in profit for the family. "
[1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/08/cryptocurrency-fraud-unit-shut-down/82991750007/
[2] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ar-AA1CwzB1
[3] https://x.com/NateSibley/status/1909602097625981396
[4] https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-establishes-the-strategic-bitcoin-reserve-and-u-s-digital-asset-stockpile/
[5] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ar-AA1CwzB1
[6] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/binance-seeks-to-curb-u-s-oversight-while-in-deal-talks-with-trump-s-crypto-company/ar-AA1CM2a4
Tt might be a conflict of interest for real (Score:4, Insightful)
For the President to operate his own un-traceable bribe machine and then shut down the people who are there to regulate said machine. I don't know, maybe I'm out on a limb here in saying that any President but especially the already wealthy President has no practical use for a crypto-coin. We the people get exactly zero for this, in fact our lives are likely being made worse for it. Art of the deal baby!
Re: (Score:2)
Phew AC, for a second I thought you might actually have something but nah just still on about Hunter.
Don't scare me like that, we continue expect you regurgitate those talking points for the next 3.6 year's, don't wear them out all at once.
Trump supporters (Score:1)
Feel free to speak up and defend this. I thought you liked being tough on crime?!
If you have parents and grandparents (Score:3)
That are still alive, and this is a website full of old farts so you might not, but if you do you need to set them down and explain to them what cryptocurrency is and how to spot scams involving it.
Not just for their protection but for yours. Because when your dipshit parents get tricked by a cryptoscam they saw on Fox News or the equivalent then they're going to have to come running to you for help.
At least the next 4 years possibly indefinitely we are going to be inundated with crooks scamming us out of our money looking to take us for everything we own and who know that so long as they can take a few tens of millions out of their ill-gotten gains and hand them to the head of state as a bribe they'll get a pardon and off the hook.
Here's why (Score:2)
"The Trump family is going all-in on crypto projects"
[1]https://finance.yahoo.com/news... [yahoo.com]
[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-family-going-crypto-projects-140000972.html
In short (Score:4, Insightful)
Money laundering is no longer illegal.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Go launder money and see if your hypothesis is correct.
Re: In short (Score:4, Informative)
It's no longer illegal if you are a friend of Trump.
Re: In short (Score:4, Informative)
Trump's real estate business is a money laundering operation for Russian oligarchs.
Nothing new under the sun... (Score:2)
I think there are actually two ways to make a great fortune. One is the well-known criminal path and it is true that the large majority of recent large fortunes are based on new crimes. Not even a new trick to bribe politicians to legalize the crimes afterwards. However the crypto-coins are really good for such bribery and that's why this story is so recursively criminal.
However I think some great fortunes are based on luck. Yeah, lots of people did lose in the lottery, but someone had to win. There are eve
Re: (Score:2)
> Money laundering is no longer illegal.
For now anyway. Trump will be out of office before the statute of limitations runs out -- same for the government (currently) not prosecuting foreign bribery. If they want to keep this rolling, they'll have elect someone willing to keep the corruption flowing.