U.S. federal law enforcement authorities are among the most active criminal agencies globally against cryptocurrency infractions. A new example of this is that FBI and Homeland Security agents have reportedly raided a technology campus over unauthorized cryptocurrency trading.

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Unauthorized Crypto Trading

According to several media reports from Grand Rapids, Michigan, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have raided a not-for-profit technological education group in the city, on Dec. 21, 2018.

The head of the organization, the National Science Institute (originally named “The Geek Group”), now claims that the reason for the raid is that he was commercially trading in the cryptocurrency markets without the government’s authorization, according to a recent local TV report (video embedded below). Chris Boden reportedly said he thinks he might be sent to federal prison and needs over $100,000 for legal expenses. “I did a stupid thing, I made a bad decision, so I’m going to pay for it.” Boden is recorded saying.

On Saturday, Boden announced a “Going Out Of Business” sale on Facebook. “Everything goes. We have to completely liquidate all of our assets to close down the nonprofit. There will be nothing left. The proceeds will go towards paying off our gigantic mountain of debt.” Regarding the case he only provided this message: “On the advice of legal council I will not comment further on the Government’s ongoing investigation.”

FBI, HSI Among Most Active in the World

This case is only the latest example of U.S. authorities being among the most active globally against cryptocurrency infractions. Recently, Kraken released statistics about the global breakdown of its subpoenas from authorities during 2018. While the exchange reports that just about 20 percent of its clients come from the U.S., the country represented the absolute majority of requests for information it had to handle from all over the world. Following the United States’ 315 subpoenas in 2018 was the U.K. with just 61. In fact, the FBI alone issued more requests than all U.K. authorities, a total of 67. HSI was even more of a burden on the exchange with 91 information requests.

Is taxpayers’ money being put to good use with federal agents sent to tackle unauthorized crypto trading? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Tags in this story

FBI, Grand Rapids, Homeland Security, IRS, Michigan, N-Featured, unauthorized, US, USA

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Avi Mizrahi

Avi Mizrahi is an economist and entrepreneur who has been covering Bitcoin as a journalist since 2013. He has spoken about the promise of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology at numerous financial conferences around the world, from London to Hong-Kong.