Kraken law enforcement requests triple in 2018

[bbc.reporter]

I assume many people, up to this time, give exchanges their identities because they think that they have no other choice. However, we should make them stop or make it known to them that they will be added to the CIA database hehehe.

In any case, I reckon we should start encouraging the use of the forum for more active, simple, over the counter cryptocoin trading and conversions.



In a sneak peek of its yearly transparency report, Kraken, one of the leading U.S. based cryptocurrency exchanges, has announced that law enforcement requests have tripled since 2017 — with the bulk of these requests coming from the U.S.

In terms of numbers, U.S. Law enforcement agencies alone made 315 requests in 2018, more than five times higher than any other country that year. Besides the U.S., the United Kingdom, Germany, and France made the highest number of requests — with 61, 34 and 20, respectively — in 2018.

Of the 315 requests made by U.S. law enforcement agencies, more than a quarter was made by the department of homeland security (HSI), with 91 requests in the last year. Besides the HSI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and U.S. Secret Service (USSS) were the sources of most requests.

Surprisingly, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was behind relatively few requests, making just 19 requests in the last year — less than half of that made by the Drug Enforcement Administration in the same year.

In other news, Kraken also highlighted its stance on the U.S. Operation Choke Point, a federal initiative that saw U.S. banks investigated for their involvement with merchants in high-risk activity categories, including online gambling, coin dealing, and pornography.

According to Kraken, cryptocurrency serves as the last report for digital payments, stating that the initiative was only effective because many businesses rely on credit cards provided by banking institutions.

Operation Choke Point has previously been criticized for driving more than 30 high-risk industries away from public banking systems despite being perfectly legal. The threat of investigation by the Department of Justice led many banks to cut ties with businesses within these industries, with JP Morgan alone closing more than 100,000 accounts in response.

It has been argued that many of these businesses have been forced to begin accepting cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin for their services, which may explain part of the extreme growth the cryptocurrency industry witnessed between 2013 and 2017.

The heavy-handed approach used in Operation Choke Point led to the closure of the bank accounts of many companies involved in industries with a higher risk of fraud or money laundering.

However, the benefits of such an effort may be short-lived, as forcing these bad actors to begin accepting cryptocurrencies for their goods and services may eventually make fraud, tax evasion, and money laundering much more difficult to track and control, since many cryptocurrencies are essentially anonymous.

Read in full https://beincrypto.com/kraken-law-enforcement-requests-triple-in-2018-feds-have-all-the-data/

[figmentofmyass]

I assume many people, up to this time, give exchanges their identities because they think that they have no other choice. However, we should make them stop or make it known to them that they will be added to the CIA database hehehe.

In any case, I reckon we should start encouraging the use of the forum for more active, simple, over the counter cryptocoin trading and conversions.

it's too bad the forum will never provide the volume or ability to trade in real-time that people need. the other thing is, any p2p platforms that get big enough will start getting attention from law enforcement. that obviously happened to localbitcoins before they instituted all their KYC rules.

i can't tell if these requests were accompanied by warrants or not. if not, i wonder if kraken complied (and how often other exchanges do the same).

[crwth]

it's too bad the forum will never provide the volume or ability to trade in real-time that people need. the other thing is, any p2p platforms that get big enough will start getting attention from law enforcement. that obviously happened to localbitcoins before they instituted all their KYC rules.

i can't tell if these requests were accompanied by warrants or not. if not, i wonder if kraken complied (and how often other exchanges do the same).

I think it's also hard to check the volume of trades or there will ever be a record of "said" trades especially in real-time. If it's digital, it's going to be easier to detect or find. Exchanges are dealing with a lot of money and it's all because Bitcoin has a higher value compared to a long time ago. Right now, a lot of people are noticing cryptocurrency because of the insane amount agreed upon value of BTC.

Kraken has given a transparency report and a reply with the current situations. I have searched it and here's the link. https://www.ccn.com/kraken-volume-of-us-govt-subpoenas-huge-barrier-to-entry-for-crypto-exchanges/

[pooya87]

it is very naive of those who think that big and legit bitcoin and altcoin exchanges aren't already working with the 3 letter agencies. for example Coinbase has been working with them for many years although they have tried to sweep it under the rug multiple times.

although regarding what you said, i always wonder how would you fight fraud if you don't ask for identity of your customers on an exchange that is accepting fiat which means they are dealing with fiat deposit methods that are easy to scam with.

[dothebeats]

Bound to happen IMO as crypto-exchanges are intertwined with fiat deposits which are prone to fraud and the likes. Even LBC back then have received a lot of such requests due to their poor handling of KYC resulting to a lot of trades that are unchecked or unrecorded and unrelated to a certain identity which led to a poor tracking of who bought which at what cost. Heck, even local exchanges nowadays are asking for two more KYC processes to comply with the AML-KYC regulations that have been imposed on most multi-national exchanges, so I guess Kraken isn't safe from that list of exchanges being issued such requests from the feds.

[Tavarez]

Over the counter trading is the best thing I read in a while, for sure we need more activity and trust in this forum. I am sick of publishing my personal data on suspicious exchanges (for simple and small amounts cca. $300). Those freaks from cex.io almost asked for blood analysis and stool analysis. Would be handy to have trustful people in the community we can always relay on and trade without fees.

[wxa7115]

Over the counter trading is the best thing I read in a while, for sure we need more activity and trust in this forum. I am sick of publishing my personal data on suspicious exchanges (for simple and small amounts cca. $300). Those freaks from cex.io almost asked for blood analysis and stool analysis. Would be handy to have trustful people in the community we can always relay on and trade without fees.

You are asking for something impossible to achieve, if you want to have people in the forum which can provide a service of exchanging your coins without asking your data then they will need to charge huge fees for it, that will be the price of keeping yourself anonymous, besides it is not like they will have access to the thousands of coins the market has at the moment, it is likely they will need to depend on centralized exchanges to give such a service.

So not only you will have to pay their fees but the fees of whatever exchange they decide to use and as you may guess that will add to the costs of exchanging your coins with them.

[muslol67]

Well, let's think about it ... if the CIA wants to reach a person's identity information, does it really need to exchange a crypto-money exchange?

This argument is a little pointless. I'm sure if the CIA and / or someone wants to access our credentials, they can do so much easier.

[squatter]

Bound to happen IMO as crypto-exchanges are intertwined with fiat deposits which are prone to fraud and the likes.

I think it's less about fraud and more about terrorism, and secondly, money laundering. That's why the Department of Homeland Security makes the most requests of any agency. Their main task is dealing with terrorism.

Even altcoin-only exchanges like Poloniex and Bittrex started mandating KYC last year, so it's not just fiat exchanges.

[bbc.reporter]

Over the counter trading is the best thing I read in a while, for sure we need more activity and trust in this forum. I am sick of publishing my personal data on suspicious exchanges (for simple and small amounts cca. $300). Those freaks from cex.io almost asked for blood analysis and stool analysis. Would be handy to have trustful people in the community we can always relay on and trade without fees.

Agreed. We can also use localbitcoins.com as an escrow service. However I am not certain if the site allows accounts with no verification to trade. 2 years ago they did but only with other users that have no verification.

In any case, it might work. The buyer or seller can post in the forum and send his localbitcoins buy or sell link privately.

[BuyBuyBitcoin]

This is why we follow the anonymous exchanges and expect the options to increase worldwide over time.

Then for every country there are usually ATM's, anonymous exchanges, the KYC Exchanges and different meetup groups you can always buy or sell your bitcoin from.

Bitcoin has a bigger future than fiat...

[pooya87]

Well, let's think about it ... if the CIA wants to reach a person's identity information, does it really need to exchange a crypto-money exchange?

This argument is a little pointless. I'm sure if the CIA and / or someone wants to access our credentials, they can do so much easier.

how can any other method be any easier than this?
they put a little bit of pressure on exchanges and in the end they sit back and receive all the data that they want automatically sent to them by the exchanges, willingly. then they extract whatever they want out of it. and it is not just about your "credentials" but about how much money you have, where you have it, what you do with it, and who are you sending  money to and receiving money from.
and it is not only them but other agencies such as IRS to tax you...

[BitcoinHodler]

in a way this is showing the growth of bitcoin!

if you think about it, the increase in law enforcement requests from exchanges is proving that there are now a lot more people involved with cryptocurrencies and the government is starting to worry since they are losing their surveilling powers.

[crwth]

in a way this is showing the growth of bitcoin!

if you think about it, the increase in law enforcement requests from exchanges is proving that there are now a lot more people involved with cryptocurrencies and the government is starting to worry since they are losing their surveilling powers.

It does show growth in a way. If there are a lot of people who are getting victimized and the government/law enforcement wants to take action, it means it's getting noticed and being studied too. If they somehow make a way to the terms that they wish to, of course not defeating the purpose why cryptocurrencies were created, to monitor it and be smart with what they can do. The people there are just adding more and more people who are probably to cause chaos, and they want to identify that as soon as they can.