IRS Expects To Seize Billions Of Cryptocurrency Next Year – Over $ 3.5 Billion In Crypto Seized This Year – Bitcoin News Settlement

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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) revealed that $ 3.5 billion in crypto was seized in fiscal 2021. This represents 93% of all funds seized by its criminal investigation unit during the same period. The agency plans to seize billions of additional dollars in cryptocurrency next year.

IRS says it could seize more than $ 3.5 billion in cryptocurrency next year

The Criminal Investigation Unit (CI) of the Internal Revenue Service, the law enforcement arm of the tas authority, released the 2021 annual criminal investigation report on Thursday. IRS, Chuck Rettig, explained that “CI agents are the only federal law enforcement officers with the authority to investigate criminal violations of the US tax code.”

The report details the IRS-CI’s significant statistics, partnerships and criminal enforcement actions for the most recent fiscal year, which began on October 1, 2020 and ended on September 30, 2021. Among several major crypto cases Highlighted in the report is “the oldest bitcoin money laundering service on the darknet called Bitcoin Fog.”

The 49-page annual criminal investigation report indicates that $ 3.5 billion of cryptocurrency was seized in fiscal year 2021. This represents 93% of all seizures of CI during the period.

The agency said it plans to seize billions of additional dollars in cryptocurrency in the next fiscal year. IRS Chief Criminal Investigations Jim Lee said on a call with reporters on Thursday:

I expect the trend of crypto foreclosures to continue as we move forward into FY 22… We are seeing cryptos involved in a number of our crimes as we move forward.

Jarod Koopman, acting executive director of IRS Cyber ​​and Forensic Services, said large cryptocurrency foreclosures have become the new normal for IRS criminal investigations.

He was quoted as saying: That’s a huge, huge number … We are certainly seeing a shift in our investigative work. Koopman believes the IRS criminal investigation unit could seize even more cryptocurrency in the next fiscal year, saying:

We expect it to stay somewhat within that range, based on some surveys that we are currently working on that are quite significant in terms of size and scope… We could exceed that number next year.

The full report is available here.

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