With Bitcoin recently surpassing $50,000.00, crimes involves that e-currency is getting really expensive. Recently, more than $154 million in funds stolen from Sony Group Corp., based in Tokyo Japan was recovered after an insider allegedly embezzled money and converted it to Bitcoin. This reported by the US Department of Justice. The US government has filed a civil action lawsuit in federal court to return the funds to Sony. Following an investigation by the FBI, authorities allege that Rei Ishii, 32, a former employee of the subsidiary Sony Life Insurance Co. also known as Sony Life diverted millions through Silvergate Bank, based in La Jolla, California.
The suspect allegedly falsified transaction instructions and transferred the funds from Sony's Citibank account located in Bermuda into a Silvergate account with the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange platform, where the funds were then converted into bitcoin, according to court documents. Federal prosecutors allege that an anonymous email was sent by Ishii, typed in both Japanese and English, to his supervisor and executives at Sony trying to deter them from participating in the investigation, according to court records. "If you are going to file criminal charges, it will be impossible to recover the funds," his message allegedly read. "If you accept the settlement, we will return the funds back."
Then he allegedly obtained 3,879 Bitcoins, which today would have a value of more than $180 million. "Ishii has been criminally charged in Japan," the Justice Department reported noting that all of the stolen funds have been recovered.
The FBI began its investigation in June 2021 with the cooperation of Japanese law enforcement agencies, including Japan's National Police Agency, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, and the Japan Prosecutors Unit on Emerging Crimes, also known as JPEC. Working with Japanese agencies, the FBI secured access to Ishii's Bitcoin address and traced the money. After transferring the money in Japanese Yen to the Silvergate's Coinbase account, he stored the money offline in a cold wallet.
The acting US attorney for the Southern District of California, says FBI agents worked with law enforcement counterparts in Japan to recover the stolen funds from the "audacious" theft. "Criminals should take note, you cannot rely on cryptocurrency to hide your ill-gotten gains from law enforcement." The FBI credits the fund recovery to Sony and Citibank's cooperation, saying that each notified law enforcement agencies once the funds had been discovered missing.
In another criminal case involving cryptocurrency transactions, convicted terrorist Khuram Iqbal of Cardiff, Wales, was in in a UK court on 22 December 2021, after he reportedly used crypto funds to engage with linked to fraudulent credential-purchasing marketplaces on the dark web, according to the UK Counter Terrorism Policing. Originally jailed in 2014 for possession of an al Qaida-linked online magazine called Inspire, Iqbal violated a 10-year notification order when he failed to disclose two Coinbase cryptocurrency accounts to police, authorities say.
In the court hearing at London's Central Criminal Court, Iqbal received a 16-month prison sentence. The joint US-UK case including Coinbase's suspicious activity report that demonstrates that major cryptocurrency players are perfectly capable of adhering to regulations in an effort to keep crypto transactions safe from money laundering or terrorist financing.
Recently, US officials have been actively debating the potential benefits and dangers of cryptocurrency. As an example, a bipartisan group of six US senators sent a letter to the Department of Treasury criticizing recent cryptocurrency regulations in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed on 15 November 2021 for using an overly broad interpretation of the word "broker," which they say could impose new regulations on those who do not meet broker requirements.
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