General

An overview of the enforcement action against LockBit 

On February 20, 2024, a coalition of international agencies led by the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the UK took enforcement action against LockBit, a ransomware as a service (RaaS) operator that manages and distributes ransomware of the same name. As part of Operation Cronos, the coalition seized eight darknet websites belonging to LockBit, and more crucially, the central administration environment, which included a panel from where affiliates staged their attacks. When this panel was live, it was where affiliates modified RaaS samples, managed victims, and even published blog posts. With the central administration environment in the hands of authorities, the ability of LockBit and its affiliates to launch attacks has effectively been dismantled. 

On November 14, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission released its 2023 Enforcement Report, which details enforcement actions that advance its mandate of protecting investors and maintaining fair markets. 

Merkle Science is pleased to announce the addition of Richard Reinhardt and Ryan Gray to lead its expansion into U.S. federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Richard Reinhardt joins Merkle Science as Lead Investigator and Ryan Gray joins the company as Account Executive. These strategic additions reinforce Merkle Science's renewed commitment to serving Public Sector customers.

Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, is now facing an existential crisis. Federal prosecutors had issued charges to Binance and founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao for their failure to report 100,000 suspicious transactions involving ransomware attacks, hacks, and even terrorist financing.

On 18th October 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it has imposed sanctions on ten Hamas members, operatives, and financial facilitators, including a Gaza-based money services business (MSB), Buy Cash Money and Money Transfer Company. Additionally, a terrorist-linked Bitcoin address was also sanctioned (19D1iGzDr7FyAdiy3ZZdxMd6ttHj1kj6WW) thathas received a total of $288,380,277 so far. 

On October 17, 2023, Binance blocked 100 accounts linked to Hamas, the terrorist group that launched a surprise attack on Israel. This action comes on the heels of blocking 190 accounts also linked to Hamas just one week earlier. These actions rightfully drew concern from the media and public: To what extent are terrorist groups in general and Hamas in particular transacting with cryptocurrency? 

When it comes to freezing illicit funds related to crypto-related crime, authorities in the United Kingdom (UK) have their hands tied. To perform this action, the suspects must already be in custody, or already convicted of a crime. 

How Does Blockchain Forensics Work

Blockchain forensics utilizes specialized techniques and processes to analyze blockchain data and transactions to support criminal investigations and compliance efforts. This emerging field provides invaluable capabilities for monitoring and tracing cryptocurrency activities.

In 2022, victims of cryptocurrency hacks collectively lost over $3.9 billion. Compared to other crimes, such as vehicle theft, most victims of cryptocurrency schemes will never recover their assets again. 

On July 31st, OFAC (The Office of Foreign Asset Control) took decisive action against individuals and entities linked to terrorist organizations Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) in the Maldives. Among those sanctioned is Ali Shafiu, a Maldivian national actively involved in the activities of ISIS-K.