Use of Crypto Payments to Facilitate Illicit Activities Increasing, GAO Blames ATMs

January 11, 2022

Bitcoin Rose to Six-Month High

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) blames cryptocurrency kiosks for the increasing use of crypto payments to facilitate illicit drug and human trafficking.

GAO Providing Auditing & Investigative Services for Congress

In a latest study released on Monday, the government agency, GAO that provides auditing and investigative services for congress pointed that the crypto kiosks, also known as the cryptocurrency ATMs, were partly responsible for this increase as the machines are not much regulated than crypto trades and transactions are hard to trace.

As the cryptocurrency space utilization increases, FBI officials stated that they expect to observe a surge in the use of virtual currency kiosks for illegal activities, including for drug and human trafficking, the report stated.
The organization proposed that the IRS and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) should cooperate and take a firmer hand in regulating the kiosks.

The study by GAO Analyzed the Use of Crypto in Global Trafficking Activities

The report analyzed the utilization of digital currencies in global trafficking operations and how U.S. agencies, including the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Postal Service (USPS), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are countering the ascent in crypto-worked with wrongdoing.

The GAO likewise thought to be the challenges agencies face in battling crypto wrongdoing, tracking down that an inescapable absence of data, particularly about crypto kiosks, was disrupting law enforcement’s capacity to recognize and stop criminals.

As indicated by the GAO report, drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) are progressively utilizing virtual cash on account of its apparent anonymity and as a more effective technique to get cash across worldwide boundaries.
However, the report pointed that the most common ways of money laundering bulk money smuggling and exchange-based money laundering hasn’t changed, the cryptocurrency is becoming a more popular way to move cash across borders without attraction the observation of law enforcement.

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