French Authorities Raid 5 Major Banks Over Accusations of Money Laundering and Fiscal Fraud

March 28, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Aussies revealed as prime targets of Israel crypto scam syndicate

February 24, 2023 Coin Telegraph

call center

Evidence found that Australians were one of the top countries targeted in a sophisticated cryptocurrency investment scam network, which has suspected kingpins in Israel.

Australian residents have been identified as one the primary targets of a sophisticated network of cryptocurrency call-center scammers — which are suspected to be run by Israel-based crime bosses.

Evidence uncovered after a full-scale raid of four Serbian call centers and 11 residences by Serbian, German, Bulgarian and Cypriot authorities found that Australians were among the top countries being targeted. The news came from a Feb. 23 report by The Australian.

The raids saw fifteen people arrested and $1.46 million in cryptocurrencies seized, among others.

Dramatic police raids in Belgrade, Bulgaria and Cyprus, following investigations in Germany, have uncovered evidence Australia is in the top tier of countries being targeted: https://t.co/zWv7I3N5Kg pic.twitter.com/k98CPDxwz7
— The Australian (@australian) February 23, 2023

Scammers from these call centers allegedly used advertisements on social media to lure in victims and offer promising investment opportunities with lucrative returns, according to the report.

Private investigation firms told the outlet that Australians were particularly sought after by scammers because of their relative wealth and a purported history of weak investigative efforts by federal and state authorities:

“Australia’s wealth combined with a long history of state and federal authorities being unwilling or unable to investigate online investment fraud has made the country a sitting duck for the international crime syndicates behind the scams.”

Mark Solomons, Senior Investigator at IFW Global, a private intelligence firm, explained that because many Australians are “friendly” and “open-minded,” they’re more likely to pursue online relationships — particularly “if the right buttons are pressed.”

“Australia and Canada vie for the top spot. They are rich countries with a low likelihood of a disciplined investigation or detection."

Solomons said much of the stolen cryptocurrencies are being used to fund the scammer’s lavish lifestyles:

“There are Israelis getting very, very rich by ripping off Australians and sucking superannuation and retirement savings out of the Australian economy.”

“We’re talking about various individuals who fly around in private jets, who have very significant assets, real estate, fancy cars, cash. They are traveling freely around the world, they’re buying yachts,” Solomons added.

While Europol has reported $3.1 million to have been stolen by the multinational operation, they believe the true figure “may be in the hundreds of millions of euros.”

In comparison to other “well-resourced” nations, Solomons urged the Australian government to up its enforcement efforts at the state, federal and international level to make the targeting of Australian investors less appealing to these scammers.

While some reports say Australians lost up to $2 billion from investment scams in 2021, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) reported Australians to have lost $323.7 million, which increased a whopping 75.6% to $568.6 million in 2022, according to the consumer watchdog’s Scamwatch database.

$221 million of those scam losses came through the use of crypto payments, according to the ACCC.

*Amount (AUD) lost and number of reports due to scams: Source:* *Scamwatch.*

Victims have lost an additional $53.4 million in the first month of 2023 too.

To fight the issue, the Australian Securities Investment Commission (ASIC) released a list of the “top-10 ways to spot a crypto scam” in November to raise awareness of the issue.

In July, the ACCC began trialing a cybersecurity service that automatically takes down scam websites. The trial saw some early success, with several crypto scam sites being knocked offline relatively quickly.

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Coinbase CEO: Regulate centralized actors but leave DeFi alone

December 20, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Armstrong said that because centralized exchanges and custodians have the most risk of causing consumer harm, regulators must focus there first and foremost.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has pushed for stricter regulations on centralized crypto actors but says decentralized protocols should be allowed to flourish given that open-source code and smart contracts are “the ultimate form of disclosure.”

Armstrong shared his views on cryptocurrency regulation in a Dec. 20 Coinbase blog where he proposed how regulators can help “restore trust” and move the industry forward as the market continues to recover from the damage done by FTX and its shock collapse.

But decentralized protocols aren’t part of that equation, the Coinbase CEO emphasized.

“Decentralized arrangements do not involve intermediaries [and] open-source code and smart contracts are “the ultimate form of disclosure,” Armstrong explained, adding that on-chain, “transparency is built in by default” in a “cryptographically provable way” and as such should be largely left alone.

8/ To get there we need to preserve the innovation potential of this technology. Regulation should focus on intermediaries (the centralized actors in cryptocurrency), where additional transparency and disclosure is needed.
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) December 20, 2022

The Coinbase CEO said that “additional transparency and disclosure” checks are needed for centralized actors because humans are involved, with Armstrong hoping FTX’s fall “will be the catalyst we need to finally get new legislation passed.”

Exchanges, custodians and stablecoin issuers are “where we've seen the most risk of consumer harm, and pretty much everyone can agree [that regulation] should be done,” he added.

Armstrong advised the U.S. starts with the stablecoin regulation pursuant to standard financial services laws, suggesting that regulators enforce the implementation of a state trust charter or an OCC national trust charter.

At this current point in time, U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty has introduced the Stablecoin Transparency Act that is expected to soon pass into the Senate in the coming months.

Armstrong added that stablecoin issuers shouldn’t have to be banks unless they want fractional reserves or to invest in risker assets but issuers should nonetheless have to satisfy “basic cybersecurity standards” and establish a blacklisting procedure in order to comply with sanction requirements.

Once stablecoin regulation is sorted out, Armstrong suggests that regulators target cryptocurrency exchanges and custodians.

The Coinbase CEO suggested that regulators should implement a federal licensing and registration regime to enable the exchanges or custodians to legally serve people within that market, in addition to strengthening consumer protection rules and prohibiting market manipulation tactics.

As for commodities and securities, Armstrong acknowledged that while the courts are still figuring things out, he suggested that the U.S. Congress should require the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) to categorize each of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap as either securities or commodities.

“If asset issuers disagree with the analysis, the courts can settle the edge cases, but this would serve as an important labeled data set for the rest of the industry to follow, as, ultimately, millions of crypto assets will be created,” he said.

Given the international reach of cryptocurrency–based businesses, Armstrong also urged regulators from all countries to look beyond what’s happening within its domestic market to consider the implications that a foreign business may be having on its citizens.

“If you are a country who is going to publish laws that all cryptocurrency companies need to follow, then you need to enforce them not just domestically but also with companies abroad who are serving your citizens," said Armstrong, adding:

Don't take that company's word for it. Actually go check if they are targeting your citizens while claiming not to.”

“If you don't have the authority to prevent that activity [...] you will unintentionally be incentivizing companies to serve your country from offshore,” Armstrong explained, adding that “tens of billions of dollars of wealth have been lost” because countries have turned a blind eye on what practices their subjects have fallen victim to abroad.

Armstrong added that in order for the industry to be properly regulated, a collaborative effort from companies, policymakers, regulators, and customers will be required from financial markets all around the world — particularly those from G20 countries.

Despite the complexity and variety of issues needing to be resolved, Armstrong said that he remains optimistic that significant progress can be made in 2023 on the legislative front.