Tagged: crypto crime

August 25, 2026 @ 3:46 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

A San Francisco-based entrepreneur with roots in the gaming industry has been found guilty of orchestrating a scheme that defrauded investors in a cryptocurrency trading fund of nearly $1 million. On August 24, 2026, a federal jury in the Northern District of California convicted Japheth… Read More

August 25, 2026 @ 3:41 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has ranked Canada as the least effective jurisdiction for assisting victims of cryptocurrency-related crimes, based on his extensive experience handling such cases. In recent comments shared via his Telegram investigations channel and on X, he placed Canada at the top of a… Read More

August 24, 2026 @ 3:27 am By Omar Faridi  |  

AI tools are transforming cryptocurrency-related illicit activities, with overall adoption climbing sharply according to recent findings from blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs. The company’s 2026 AI-in-Crime Adoption Index scores the use of artificial intelligence across crypto crime at 54 out of 100, placing it in… Read More

August 20, 2026 @ 2:29 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Federal prosecutors in Georgia have publicly detailed criminal charges against Edward Zimbardi following his recent return to the United States from Fiji. The 59-year-old resident of Flowery Branch stands accused of orchestrating a large-scale investment fraud that authorities say diverted more than $165 million from… Read More

August 14, 2026 @ 11:07 am By Omar Faridi  |  

In a quiet rural corner of northern France, a young couple has endured a nightmarish series of home invasions linked not to their own finances but to the digital wealth of the property’s previous occupants. The pair, an agricultural worker and a bank executive in… Read More

August 5, 2026 @ 2:15 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Three men from St. Louis, Missouri, are facing federal charges in connection with an alleged scheme to seize Bitcoin through a planned residential break-in in Connecticut nearly two years earlier. US Attorney David X. Sullivan for the District of Connecticut announced that Sedric Louis, 32,… Read More

June 25, 2026 @ 8:19 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Chainalysis has noted that on June 22, 2026, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took decisive action against financial networks aiding the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Chainalysis also mentioned that the agency designated three individuals and… Read More

June 20, 2026 @ 12:52 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Two brothers from Texas have admitted their roles in a brazen armed robbery that left a Minnesota family held captive at gunpoint for hours while more than $8 million in cryptocurrency was stolen from them. On June 18, 2026, Isiah Angelo Garcia, 25, and Raymond… Read More

June 18, 2026 @ 6:54 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Chainalysis has indicated that Brazil has solidified its position as Latin America’s leading cryptocurrency hub, drawing significant attention from both legitimate users and illicit operators. From July 2024 to June 2025, the country processed an estimated $318 billion in on-chain cryptocurrency transactions, representing about one-third… Read More

June 13, 2026 @ 3:16 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

A recent collaborative probe has shed new light on Russia’s sophisticated sanctions-evasion strategies, highlighting the role of digital assets in a financial setup known as the A7 network. Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs joined forces with the Open Source Centre to scrutinize this system, drawing… Read More

May 9, 2026 @ 12:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

CertiK pointed out that wrench attacks—brutal physical assaults aimed at forcing cryptocurrency owners to surrender private keys or digital assets—have evolved into a sophisticated, transnational criminal enterprise. These incidents blend open-source intelligence gathering, social engineering, and outright violence, including kidnappings and extortion (along with other… Read More

April 30, 2026 @ 1:00 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The US Justice Department announced that a 22-year-old resident of Newport Beach, California, was sentenced April 24 in federal court in Washington, D.C., to more than five years behind bars for his central role in cleaning dirty money from one of the largest social-engineering fraud… Read More

April 27, 2026 @ 4:54 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Elliptic has indicated that financial institutions have long maintained strong controls against money laundering, fraud, and sanctions violations. Yet the rise of cryptocurrencies introduces new pathways for these same threats, moving funds across borders and blockchains in seconds rather than days. Legacy monitoring tools designed… Read More

April 14, 2026 @ 9:38 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs has played a key role in Operation Atlantic, a coordinated international effort that resulted in the freezing of more than $12 million in illicit funds and the identification of over 20,000 victims across multiple countries. The week-long operation, which wrapped… Read More

April 12, 2026 @ 9:04 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) highlighted just this past week the significant growth of online scams fueled by cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, revealing that these sophisticated schemes drained nearly $21 billion from US victims last year alone. The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Complaint Center… Read More

April 1, 2026 @ 8:20 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Federal authorities have unveiled charges against ten executives and employees from four cryptocurrency market-making companies in what officials describe as a coordinated international effort to combat deceptive trading practices in the digital asset sector. The indictments, handed down by grand juries in San Francisco and… Read More

March 29, 2026 @ 7:52 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

In a concerning case that unfolded earlier this week, the co-founders of CoinDCX—one of India’s cryptocurrency exchanges—found themselves in police custody over allegations of a ₹71.6 lakh fraud. Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal were arrested in Bengaluru by officers from Thane’s Mumbra police station and… Read More

March 29, 2026 @ 2:36 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

In a decisive step announced on March 26, 2026, the UK government has imposed sanctions on Xinbi, a prominent Chinese-language online platform that functions as a key enabler of cryptocurrency-fueled fraud operations across Southeast Asia. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) described Xinbi as… Read More

March 23, 2026 @ 9:16 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

TRM Labs has noted that federal officials in North Carolina have confiscated more than $61 million in stablecoin USDT tied to one of the most sophisticated and damaging online fraud schemes targeting everyday investors. TRM Labs also mentioned that the action, disclosed recently by the… Read More

March 15, 2026 @ 9:20 am By Omar Faridi  |  

TRM Labs noted that authorities have detained John Daghita, who used the online handles “John” or “Lick,” in connection with the alleged theft of digital assets from wallets controlled by the United States government. TRM Labs pointed out that the operation unfolded on the Caribbean… Read More