During an investigation associated with the mastermind of Ghost, an encrypted communication platform, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) confiscated AU$9.3 million (US$6.4 million) in cryptocurrency.
On September 17, the AFP apprehended Jay Je Yoon Jung, a 32-year-old suspect, as part of “Operation Kraken,” as announced on Wednesday. The Narwee-based individual has been charged with five offenses, one of which is the support of a criminal organization.
The assets were confiscated after an analytics specialist within the AFP-led task force decoded the “seed phrase” of alleged accounts. The crypto assets were subsequently transferred to the secure storage of the Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT), a division of the AFP.
The AFP is mainly concerned with identifying and restricting “ill-gotten goods,” including cryptos, as noted by Acting Commander Raven.
“The technical capabilities and powers that the AFP, and our partners through the CACT, can bring to bear on organized crime are demonstrated by the restraint of these assets.”
According to the notification, the crypto assets were confiscated by the Commonwealth Proceeds of Crime Act(2002). “The CACT will pursue the forfeiture of the restrained assets to the Commonwealth in due course.”
The seizure, valued at several million dollars, is the second associated with AFP Operation Kraken. A Perth man was arrested last month for possessing cryptos and properties valued at AU$2 million (US$1.3 million).
AFP’s Global Campaign to Prevent Crypto-Related Scams
The Australian police force has been investigating losses from cryptocurrency “phishing scams.” The AFP collaborated with blockchain data firm Chainalysis in August and discovered that at least 2,000 crypto wallets owned by Australians had been compromised.
The investigations, nicknamed Operation Spincaster, have illuminated the new “approval phishing” tactics that cybercriminals employ with cryptos.
The AFP-collaborated Operation Spincaster is designed to combat these approval phishing schemes by providing education, tools, and training.
Additionally, the police observed that BTC Markets, Binance, Crypto.com, Ebonex, Independent Reserve, OKX, SwyftX, and Wayex, among other cryptocurrency exchanges, were also collaborating to safeguard Australians from these fraudulent activities.