U.S. Marshals Service is on the lookout for cryptocurrency experts to help it manage digital currencies made from illegal activities. Such currencies include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.
The Federal agency’s cryptocurrency portfolio includes over $65 million in Bitcoin and $9 million in Ethereum. USMC requires the help of a contractor to help carry out several duties with respect to cryptocurrencies recovered from criminals.
The contractor will assist in seizing, maintaining, storing, selling, and disposing of cryptocurrencies used or gained from illegal activities.
According to the advert posted for a contractor,
“This includes but is not limited to such activities as accounting, customer management, audit compliance, managing blockchain forks, wallet creation and management, private encryption key generation and safekeeping, backup and recovery of private encryption key material, airdrops, etc., as well as future actions associated with the virtual currency forfeiture process.”
Data suggests that cryptocurrency was used to launder $2.8 billion in 2019. This is over 100% more than in 2018, a year in which criminals laundered an estimated $1 billion using cryptocurrency.
The figure, however, is small in comparison to the fines (over $10 billion) which banks had to pay for violating anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism laws. According to research by European startup Fernego, 60.5% of the fines came from banks violating anti-money laundering rules, while over 38% of fines resulted from transactions with countries under sanctions.
Some of the most popular banks in the world contribute to over $2 trillion in money laundering a year. Many criminals use different methods to hide their money in banks, many times with the knowledge of some members of staff of the banks.
Meanwhile, a growing number of people now appreciate Bitcoin for more of its use cases than they used to. Previously, Bitcoin was perceived as a cryptocurrency with one use case- financial transactions. Now, the cryptocurrency has gained the trust of more people who desire new ways of reducing their tax liabilities as they prepare for life after their working years. This opens up the gates for a $28 trillion retirement market.
