Warren Flags Crypto Ties to Child Sexual Abuse in Letter to DOJ, Homeland Security

Leading
crypto
critic
U.S.
Sen.
Elizabeth
Warren
(D-Mass.)
has
asked
U.S.
Attorney
General
Merrick
Garland
what
tools
the
federal
government
needs
to
crack
down
on
the
use
of
digital
assets
to
perpetrate
child
sexual
exploitation,
according
to
a
letter
she
sent
to
the
top
U.S.
law-enforcement
official.

Warren
and
Sen.
Bill
Cassidy
(R-La.)
flagged
cryptocurrencies
as
a
significant
tool
supporting
child
sexual
abuse
materials
in

a
letter
the
senators
sent
this
week
to
Garland
and
Alejandro
Mayorkas,
the
chief
of
the
U.S.
Department
of
Homeland
Security.

Cryptocurrency
has
become
“the
payment
of
choice
for
perpetrators
of
child
sexual
abuse
and
exploitation,”
the
lawmakers
noted,
citing
a
February
FinCEN
Trend
Analysis
from
transactions
in
2020
and
2021
and
a
Chainalysis
report
from
this
past
January.
“Existing
anti-money
laundering
rules
and
law
enforcement
methods
face
challenges
in
effectively
detecting
and
preventing
these
crimes
–
and
we
seek
to
ensure
that
Congress
and
the
administration
are
doing
their
part
to
address
these
challenges.”

The
letter
asked
the
agencies
to
detail
the
“additional
tools
and
resources”
they
need
to
deal
with
the
problem.

The
use
of
digital
tokens
to
fund
the
abuse
of
children
rose
to
prominence
years
ago,
such
as
in
the
2019
bust
of
the

Welcome
to
Video
pornography
site
run
by
a
South
Korean
national
and,
a
year
later,
when
authorities

pursued
a
Dutch
national
who
ran
a
rape
and
child
porn
site
on
the
darkweb
and
made
$1.6
million
in
bitcoin

(BTC).

Crypto
became
a
favorite
form
of
payment
due
to
perceptions
that
it
offered
anonymity
for
the
transactions,
though
analytic
tools
and
law-enforcement
strategies
have
since
cast
some
doubt
on
that.
Much
of
the
data
on
crypto
use
cited
by
the
lawmakers
is
several
years
old.
Still,
the
Chainalysis
review
earlier
this
year
noted
it
as
“a
growing
problem.”

Read
More:



Bitcoin
Favored
in
Human
Trafficking,
Child
Exploitation:
FinCEN
Report