Why The FBI Is Forming A New Crypto Unit

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has created a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), the domestic intelligence and security service announced Thursday.

“With the rapid innovation of digital assets and distributed ledger technologies, we have seen a rise in their illicit use by criminals who exploit them to [commit crimes] . . . NCET will serve as the focal point for the department’s efforts to tackle the growth of crime involving these technologies,” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Department of Justice’s criminal division said in a statement.

Eun Young Choi will serve as the director of NCET as early as Thursday. The FBI also said in the statement that the unit will ensure that the agency is prepared to face the challenges and potential threats that cryptocurrencies pose.

The agency will focus on “virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services, infrastructure providers,” and further entities that enable criminal activities in the crypto spaces. Creating the new division comes after a New York couple laundered billions of dollars in stolen bitcoins, the largest ever financial seizure, according to Reuters.

NCET will also work in close collaboration with the criminal division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, and the National Security Division. It will also work with the FBI’s recently created Virtual Asset Exploitation Unit.

“The NCET will play a pivotal role in ensuring that as the technology surrounding digital assets grows and evolves, the department, in turn, accelerates and expands its efforts to combat their illicit abuse by criminals of all kinds,” said newly appointed Director Choi in a statement.

Her previous experience includes being a lead prosecutor in the investigation to find those responsible for hacking JPMorgan Chase and a dozen more financial companies. She was also a prosecutor during the operation of Coin.mx, which dealt in unlicensed crypto exchanges. Choi also won an appeal before the Second Circuit against Ross Ulbricht, founder of Silk Road, the first darknet marketplace.

“The NCET will serve as the focal point for the department’s efforts to tackle the growth of crime involving these technologies. Eun Young is an accomplished leader on cyber and cryptocurrency issues,” Polite added.