Cryptocurrencies and their growth have not looked back since their inception and have bolstered the world economy. Let’s look at the latest developments in this revolutionary industry.
Cryptocurrency impedes investigations against child trafficking – UN
UN’s chief of the Cybercrime and Anti-Money Laundering, Neil Walsch, highlighted the challenges investigators face when combating child trafficking, due to the additional anonymous layer of cryptocurrency. Elimination of identity verification enables criminals to bypass the limitations of traditional payments and evade authorities. Neil reckons these drawbacks can be tackled by the implementation of FATF’s policies and involvement of the crypto industry with the policymakers.
TON’s forthcoming launch, Telegram’s abetting terrorism
Issuance of Telegram’s token GRAM is imminent in the upcoming months; investors told The New York Times. GRAM, a decentralized currency, raised $1.7 billion in its Initial Coin Offering.Â
This report follows the research by MEMRI, The Middle East Media Research Institute, that revealed the use of cryptocurrency and Telegram by terrorists to fund their activities. The executive director of MEMRI, Steven Stalinsky, urged the authorities to focus on the dissemination of terror on Telegram and its potential growth with the release of TON, Telegram’s blockchain.
Read Crypto news from Europe: Week in review
Bitcoin ATM scammers: Instruct and loot
Winnepeg police cautioned Bitcoin ATM users of a new scam that employed fake posters suggesting an ongoing software upgradation of the machine. It lured people to send their Bitcoins to the scammer’s account. This scam, targetted towards new users, had detailed instructions to buy bitcoin and offered a lower commission fee as compensation for the inconvenience caused.
Fraudulent gold in circulation: Report
Around 1000 fraudulently stamped gold bars are making rounds in the industry and have been discovered in the vaults of JPMorgan & Chase, and senior executives of a few gold refineries. Reuters reported that these bars were abetting money laundering and were hard to detect because of their high purity.Â
Craig Wright loses 50% of his bitcoin in Klieman v. Wright
The self-proclaimed creator of bitcoin, Craig Wright, is treading in troubled waters after losing a case against the Klieman’s estate. The judgment ordered Wright to surrender 50% of the bitcoins mined by him and Klieman, before Klieman’s untimely death, to the estate. The court came to this decision after taking into account the submission of fraudulent documents and deceitful testimonies by Wright.
Read Crypto news from Asia: Week in review
Capital one hacker faces up to 25 years in jail
Capital One’s hacker, Paige Thompson, has been indicted of Wire Fraud and Computer Fraud and Abuse. She faces up to 25 years in prison. Former Amazon employee exploited firewall misconfiguration by some users of Amazon Web Services to obtain their account credentials. Cryptojacking was another felony committed by her where she employed the cloud computing power of the victims to mine cryptocurrency.Â
SEC cracks down on BitqyckÂ
Bitqyck and its founders were charged on the accounts of running an unregistered cryptocurrency exchange and defrauding investors by selling unregistered security offerings. SEC and the accused agreed on the final judgment of reimbursement of the investors with interest and the payment of civil penalties.
