IRS Lists 4 Crypto Crimes among Top Cases in 2023
13 Dec, 2023 ● Crypto News
Four cryptocurrency-related cases are among the top ten of the US Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) "most prominent and high-profile investigations" for 2023, according to the unit's criminal investigation report.
Four major cases involving the seizure of cryptocurrency, fraudulent practices, money laundering, and other schemes were reported by the IRS unit on December 11, according to a notice published on the same day.
Karl Sebastian Greenwood, a co-founder of OneCoin, was found guilty in September of marketing and selling a fraudulent cryptocurrency asset, earning him a 20-year prison sentence.
This was the third most high-profile investigation that the company had conducted in the previous year.
In another case, Ian Freeman, a resident of New Hampshire, was found guilty of running a money laundering scheme using Bitcoin (BTC) kiosks and evading taxes from 2016 to 2019. Freeman received an 8-year prison sentence.
The government agency was also in charge of looking into Amir Elmaani, aka "Bruno Block," the creator of Oyster Protocol, for possible tax evasion connected to the minting and sale of Pearl tokens.
In 2012, James Zhong, an individual accused of stealing Bitcoin from the Silk Road marketplace, was involved in one of the oldest criminal cases to make the IRS list.
When authorities raided Zhong's home in November 2021, they discovered the majority of the cryptocurrency—which was valued at over $3 billion at the time—in a floor safe and a computer hidden inside a popcorn tin. Zhong had managed to hide his involvement in the crime for about ten years.
The IRS criminal investigation unit disclosed in its annual report that during the fiscal year 2023, it had opened over 2,676 cases, involving over $37 billion in tax and financial crimes. Since 2015, the government agency has taken control of over $10 billion in cryptocurrency.
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/irs-crypto-crimes-top-cases-2023
https://www.irs.gov/compliance/criminal-investigation/irs-ci-counts-down-top-10-cases-of-2023
