Binance Launches Global Law Enforcement Training Program

Twitter icon  •  Published 1 year ago  •  Nikolas Sargeant

With the launch of a global law enforcement training program, Binance intends to train law enforcement around the globe to catch crypto criminals

With the launch of a global law enforcement training program, Binance intends to train law enforcement around the globe to catch crypto criminals. The plan was first shared with Yahoo Finance, as Binance aims to quell the scams and con artists from committing crypto crimes. 

Binance Aims To Tackle Crypto Crime

As the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance works closely with law enforcement to stamp out fraudulent activities by helping them track and trace suspicious accounts. Digital asset crimes cover all sectors, including terrorism financing, ransomware, human trafficking, child pornography, and direct financial crimes using crypto.

The FBI recently released a public warning, raising awareness of the risk of hackers accessing funds on decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. Two weeks ago, the U.S. Treasury issued a report laying out a plan to combat the use of cryptocurrency for financial crimes, including money laundering and terrorism financing. 

In response, Binance has been proactive in helping financial crime investigators, with the global head of intelligence and investigations at Binance, Tigran Gambaryan, stating, “As more regulators and public law enforcement agencies look at crypto, Binance is seeing demand for training to help educate on and combat crypto crimes.”

Crypto Financial Crime Is Damaging The Industry

According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, crypto funds lost due to hacks surged in 2022, with more than $202 million stolen in August alone. Binance reports that since November 2021, its’ investigations team has responded to more than 27,000 law enforcement requests. 

The crypto firm has acknowledged that by building a team of former government officials to aid regulators in resolving cases. Matt Price, senior director of investigations for Binance, said he’s passing information back and forth with US law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Secret Service, Homeland Security, IRS, and Justice Department.

Price is well-equipped for the job, working as a special agent with Washington's IRS criminal investigation cyber crimes unit. He said on the matter, “When I was working these cases on the government side, being able to pick up the phone and know as an investigator in the government that I can contact someone in the industry for help on working a hack would have helped me take action very quickly,” continuing to say “That's where these public private partnerships really come in. It's that ability to share the information back and forth.”

Since blockchain technology is still in its infancy, especially in mainstream adoption, customers are susceptible to hacks and fraudulent attacks. Price had this to say on the issue, “[Criminals] are doing the same thing they did in the past. They're just moving to the new technology. People are still going to try it.” However, he was optimistic about the law enforcement’s efforts, “But if every time you do it, you know that the industry and the law enforcement agencies are working together to try to catch you, it makes it a lot harder.”

Author

Nikolas Sargeant

Nik is a content and public relations specialist with an ever-growing interest in Crypto. He has been published on several leading Crypto and blockchain based news sites. He is currently based in Spain, but hails from the Pacific Northwest in the US.