Australian Federal Police Forms Of Crypto Crime Special Team

Australian Police is a form of the Crypto Task Force. (photo; twitter @AusFedPolice)

JAKARTA Law enforcement in Australia is now forming a special police group seeking to improve its expertise in cryptocurrencies and trace crypto transactions. The Australian Financial Review reported on Monday, September 5 that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) has now also formed a new cryptocurrency unit that focuses on monitoring crypto-related transactions,

Stefan Jerga, the national manager of AFP's confiscation of criminal assets, said that the use of cryptocurrencies in criminal activities had increased significantly since AFP confiscated its first cryptocurrency in early 2018. In response, AFP also decided to form a special crypto team last August.

The increase in focus on illegal crypto transactions occurred amid AFP's efforts to confiscate more criminal assets than previously thought. AFP officially reported on Monday that it was aiming to confiscate 600 million US dollars from financial crimes two years ahead of schedule. The target was originally set by the AFP-led Criminal Asset Confiscation Task Force and is expected to be achieved by 2024.

Since February 2020, AFP has confiscated $380 million in housing and commercial properties, $200 million in cash and bank accounts, and $35 million in the form of cars, ships, aircraft, artwork, luxury goods, and cryptocurrencies.

Jerga also noted that small crypto confiscations are compared to "traditional" criminal assets such as property and cash, but the additional focus is expected to provide more insight.

According to AFP managers, the environment has sparked the formation of a stand-alone team, against many officers taking some of this expertise as part of their overall role.

He added that the ability to track crypto transactions across blockchains is very, very important in addition to national security, child protection, and more.

Earlier this year, an official at the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (AUSTRAC) expressed skepticism about cryptocurrency transparency. AUSTRAC's deputy chief executive, John Moss, argues that cryptocurrencies can be used anonymously, quickly, and across international borders, which makes them attractive to criminals, including neo-Nazi groups.

Contrary to popular beliefs, which think that Bitcoin is anonymous, Bitcoin transactions themselves are actually not anonymous. On the other hand, they can be tracked publicly via blockchain explorers. While it is technically possible to run BTC wallets anonymously, it is increasingly difficult to carry out BTC transactions anonymously because transactions are quite often associated with your Customer Identity data.