In the “Weekly Round-Up” we summarise and give extra reading suggestions for some of the past weeks financial crime news headlines, powered by Acuminor’s crime universe ThreatView® .
When looking back on this week’s stories, there are some highlights to bring with you into the weekend if you haven’t had the chance to read about them during the week. Since we are amid the International Fraud Awareness Week 2021, let’s start with a few Fraud stories.
From the US, the Department of Justice informs of the most significant single recovery of a cryptocurrency fraud by the United States to date connected to a massive Ponzi scheme in the Cryptocurrency sector. The BitConnect fraud conspired to defraud investors to support the Bitconnect business in promises of returns for up to 40% per month on their investments. DOJ is also seeking further victims for this massive fraud.
OOCRP – U.S. Authorities Seize $56 Million from Promoter of a Cryptocurrency Fraud Scheme
Also, there has been an odd but interesting story on fraud concerning IPv4 addresses from the US. A CEO South Carolina technology firm has admitted to wire fraud for obtaining 735,000 IPv4 addresses under false pretences. There is a global shortage of IPv4 addresses, and there has been a price spike where a single IPv4 address can be sold for $15-$25 on the open market. The security researcher and reporter, Brian Krebs, has a good write up on the case.
Krebson Security – Tech CEO Pleads to Wire Fraud in IP Address Scheme
To jump to something else. The organisation TRACE has released its updated Threat Matrix for Bribery. It measures business bribery risk in 194 jurisdictions, territories, and autonomous and semi-autonomous regions. It is a great data set to use as a reference.
Trace International – TRACE Bribery Risk Matrix
To end these highlights of the week, I must applaud the effort from the Global law enforcement community that, during the 10th edition of Europol’s Victim Identification Taskforce (VIDTF), has managed to identify 18 victims of child sexual abuse and apprehend two offenders. As EUROPOL stated in the latest “Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment”, there is a worrying trend of commercialisation for child sexual abuse. We all need to aid in efforts to halt crimes that target the young and vulnerable in our society. Read more about it below, but you can also help in the victim identification of child sexual abuse by heading over to (and sharing the link) Europol’s site Stop Child Abuse -Trace an object.
Europol – Stop child abuse – Trace an object
Europol – Global Europol taskforce identifies 18 child victims of sexual abuse