Financial Crime is Not Victimless

Financial crime, particularly digital financial crime, can feel victimless. The losses are factored into the fees and charges which are passed on in higher prices and the press seldom focus on the distress and stress caused to individuals faced with criminal activity. In addition, the authorities continue to focus on cash while the evidence grows that criminals are at least as comfortable, if not more so, working with digital cash.

Crypto currency and crime

Three recent headlines:

• 7 June: US recovers $2.3 million in bitcoin paid in the Colonial Pipeline ransom

• 25 June: ‘UK cops seize £114 million in crypto’

• 13 July: ‘UK cops make record crypto haul in money laundering investigation’ (£180 million).

Despite the recovery of bitcoin achieved by the US authorities in this case, Senator Roy Blunt commented at the time, ‘we have a lot of cash requirements in our country, but we haven’t figured out, in the country or in the world, how to trace cryptocurrency.’