Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to Enter Ten-Digit Amounts in Digital Assets in the Year to Come
IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Jim Lee shared the crucial accomplishments reached by his unit in 2021 and explained why the next year may be even more “fruitful.”
$ 3.5 billion in crypto seized in fiscal 2021
According to the Bloomberg Crypto article, seized crypto represents 95% of all assets seized by the tax enforcement agency in fiscal 2021.
Mr. Lee unveiled that out of $3.5 billion seized this year, more than $1 billion belonged to the attackers of now-defunct darknet marketplace Silk Road.
Typically, cryptocurrency is used to cover various dangerous criminal activities such as wire fraud, money laundering, drug trafficking, and tax evasion.
Also, the IRS officer mentioned the case of a former Microsoft employee who utilized cryptocurrency to hide $10 million stolen from the company.
As covered by U.Today previously, Dutch enforcement agencies seized $ 29 million in cryptocurrency following a series of prosecution operations.
More visibility for crypto businesses in 2022
According to the official report released by the IRS on Nov. 25, 2021, its Criminal Investigations unit is laser-focused on cryptocurrency training and open-source intelligence practices (OSINT).
To facilitate these efforts, the service will launch the Advanced Collaboration & Data Center in Northern Virginia next year.
As such, in 2022, the service is going to seize far more impressive amounts of crypto. These plans are aligned with a recent law approved by President Joe Biden that required crypto brokers to report the majority of transactions to the IRS.
