The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is launching a pilot program to combat cryptocurrency-related cybercrime worldwide.
According to the IRS, the federal agency is sending four attachés with extensive cybercrime investigative experience to four continents – Asia, Europe, South America and Australia – to work with their law enforcement counterparts there.
Says Jim Lee, head of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI),
“In order to effectively combat cybercrime, we need to ensure that our foreign counterparts have access to the same tools and expertise we have here in the United States. This summer, four of our most-skilled special agents will deploy to strategic locations on four continents to ensure that we can continue to build relationships and effectively combat cybercrime on a global scale.”
The four individuals are being deployed to Sydney, Australia; Bogota, Colombia; Frankfurt, Germany; and Singapore, according to the IRS. They will remain there for a 120-day stint, beginning in June and concluding in September 2023.
They are being tasked with combating cybercrime with a focus “on tax and financial crimes that use cryptocurrency, decentralized finance, peer-to-peer payments and mixing services.”
The attachés include Peter Dickerman, a senior analyst for the IRS’ Digital Forensics Program; David Strager, who has experience overseeing criminal investigations into cryptocurrency tax evasion; Cuong Ly, whose expertise is crypto exchange fraud; and Stacey Perez, who has concentrated on investigating suspected money laundering crimes.
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