USSS Official Says Agency Has Seized $102M in Stolen Crypto

A top-level official from the US Secret Service (USSS) has stated that the agency is able to track the flow of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies in a similar manner to email addresses. According to the official, the agency has already seized more than $102 million in cryptocurrency across 254 cases since 2015.

David Smith, the USSS assistant director, had told CNBC that investigators can trace crypto transactions easier than transactions executed with fiat currency in some cases, given the transparent and immutable nature of blockchain ledgers.

According to Smith:

When you follow a digital currency wallet, it’s no different than an email address that has some correlating identifiers. Once a person and another person make a transaction, and that gets into the blockchain, we have the ability to follow that email address or wallet address, if you will, and trace it through the blockchain.

Smith went on to say that “one of the guiding principles of the blockchain is that it is a public ledger that’s shared and everyone with a little bit of computing power has access to it, including law enforcement.”

According to Agent Smith, agents and analysts conducting investigations out of the Global Investigative Operations Center (GIOC) at the Secret Service headquarters in Washington D.C., have seized more than $100 million worth of cryptocurrency from cybercriminals.

There are a number of scenarios in which crypto is seized. One such scenario involved an Estonian man who was involved in 13 international ransomware attacks. $1.7 million worth of Bitcoin was seized from the man in March, and the Estonian-based cybercriminal was sentenced to 66 months in prison.

Other cases include the taking down of an international money laundering operation based in Romania and a Russian cybercriminal ring involved in ransomware.