In a public filing made by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States, it is disclosed that the law enforcement organisation seized digital assets worth around $1.7 million between the months of March and May.
According to reports, the FBI stole $20,000 in Monero XMR ($156), $147,000 in Bitcoin BTC ($29,035), $800,000 in Ether ($1,818), $307,000 in Tether USDT ($1), 469,000 in Dai DAI ($1), and $800,000 in Ether ($1,818). A variety of locations, including wallets connected to the Binance exchange, were where the assets were seized.
In the Eastern District of Virginia, the government made its biggest-ever seizure, taking 428.5 ETH in total. One of the ether seizures was estimated to be worth $463,000.
In the petition, the FBI also claimed that a number of federal laws had been broken, which was why assets were seized. The FBI disclosed:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) hereby advises you that the following property has been seized for federal forfeiture as a result of a violation of federal law:
The FBI also claimed the recovery of various other items in addition to cryptocurrencies, including cash from bank accounts, sports cars, expensive bags, clothes, and footwear.
For some time, the FBI has been alerting the crypto community to scammers posing as real people in the nonfungible token (NFT) market. The FBI issued a warning on account hijackers on August 6 about how they prey on victims by creating a “sense of urgency” and leading them to fake websites where their assets are taken. The FBI claims that criminals and con artists either hack official social media accounts or create new, phoney personas.
Earlier this year, the FBI issued a warning about phishing operations, social media takeovers, and false crypto job ads. The group issued a warning to Americans on May 23 about fraudulent job advertisements linked to human trafficking when victims are pressured into committing cryptocurrency investment fraud.
