The new DOJ task force called KleptoCapture has arrived. This new effort from the United States government agency is expected to prevent crypto exchanges from helping Russia evade the ongoing sanctions against it.
Pedestrians walk under a Bitcoin cryptocurrency symbol displayed at a cryptocurrency exchange shop in Pristina on January 17, 2022. - Kosovo police on January 8 seized hundreds of cryptocurrency mining machines and arrested one person in the tense ethnic-Serb majority north as the country suffered an energy crisis. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are created through solving complex equations.
KleptoCapture arrived after some rumors claimed that the Russian government was able to evade the sanctions imposed by the U.S. using cryptocurrencies.
New DOJ Task Force KleptoCapture
According to Bitcoin.Com's latest report, the new task force of the Department of Justice will focus on cryptocurrency exchange firms, as well as banks, money transmission services, and financial institutes.
A visual representation of the digital Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin on December 07, 2017 in London, England. Cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Lightcoin have seen unprecedented growth in 2017, despite remaining extremely volatile. While digital currencies across the board have divided opinion between financial institutions, and now have a market cap of around 175 Billion USD.
The U.S. DOJ launched KleptoCapture back in Mar. 2. Its main goal is to ensure that the sanctions imposed by the United States against Russia are working properly.
These include export restrictions, economic countermeasures, sweeping sanctions, and many more.
"Our goal is to bring any appropriate charge against any sanctioned Russian oligarch or entity, and those who would help them to evade economic sanctions," said the U.S. DOJ.
The Department of Justice added that those who are caught helping the Russian government evade sanctions will face money laundering charges because of the role they played when it comes to hiding Russia's financial transactions.
Crypto as Loophole for Russian Sanctions?
Nikkei Asia reported that the European Union and the U.S. are currently keeping their eyes on cryptocurrencies since these can be used by Russian as a loophole against sanctions.
These include blocking major Russian banks from the SWIFT global payment network. Because of this, the EU finance ministers also agreed to investigate the crypto asset actions that might be linked to the Russian government.
If you want to see more details about the actions made by the U.S. and EU against this cryptocurrency loophole, you can visit this link.
In other news, Bitcoin's value decreased because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Meanwhile, the blockchain gaming firm Animoca decided to pull out its services from Russia.
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Written by: Griffin Davis
