US Senators Propose Bill to Expand Secret Service Authority in Combating Crypto-Related Crimes
Please note that we are not authorised to provide any investment advice. The content on this page is for information purposes only.
Two US Senators, Catherine Cortez Masto and Charles Grassley, have introduced a Financial crime bill to fight financial crimes. The bill would give the US Secret Service more authority to crack down on crypto-related crimes.
Secret Service Gets Boost to Combat Crypto Crimes
The Senators introduced the “Combating Money Laundering in Cyber Crime Act of 2024” bill on August 2 as a solution to combat the financial crimes being perpetrated through crypto assets. The new bill, a follow-up to a January bill from nine House lawmakers, mandates a Government Accountability Report within a year to assess law enforcement’s ability to detect and deter money laundering.
According to the bill, the Secret Service should be strengthened and given the authority to go after cybercriminal activity and investigate crimes connected to crypto asset transactions and fraudulent institutions.
Senator Cortez stated that the new bill gives the Secret Service the tools to investigate criminal organizations using digital assets to evade the law.
According to her, the Secret Service plays a critical role in combating financial crime, and the bill will ensure that they can continue to keep us safe.
My new bill with @ChuckGrassley gives the Secret Service the tools to investigate criminal organizations using digital assets to evade the law.
The Secret Service plays a critical role in combatting financial crime, and our bill will ensure they can continue to keep us safe.
— Senator Cortez Masto (@SenCortezMasto) August 4, 2024
The data from Chainalysis reveal that there have been a significant number of cryptocurrencies laundered within the past five years, as $31.5 billion was laundered in 2022.
Despite the staggering amount of funds that were laundered using cryptocurrency, the US Treasury in February confirmed that cash is still the main method of laundering used by criminals in the US.
The US Treasury, before the introduction of this financial crime bill, has been making efforts to curb crypto crimes in recent years alongside the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Notably, there have been different ways malicious entities are employed to commit crypto crimes. One of which is deepfake technology, which scammers used to steal $28,000 from crypto investors at the recently concluded Bitcoin 2024 Conference.
Combating Financial Crimes Prior to the Financial Crime Bill
The Secret Service launched an internal unit called the Cyber Investigative Section in 2004, responsible for mitigating cybercrimes.
This unit was effective until 2020 when the Secret Service announced the creation of its Cyber Fraud Task Forces, which is a combination of its Electronic Crimes Task Forces and Financial Crimes Task Forces.
The purpose of this merger was to pool resources together to improve the investigative abilities of both units and to ensure that best practices were followed as regards financial crimes.
Since then, members of the Secret Service have clamored for better financial security measures and the hiring of new Secret Service officials with advanced-level cyber skills needed to conduct advanced-level financial crime investigations.
Fortunately, Senator Cortez’s new bill, in partnership with Senator Grassley, has come up to assist the Secret Service in tackling this challenge.
However, this would be her second attempt since she introduced a bill in September last year to close loopholes and ensure cryptocurrency companies comply with federal anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing frameworks.
