Chinese Intelligence Officers Used bitcoin to bribe a US Official

[Accardo]

It's a common story, but the story behind this "using bitcoin for bribery" by Chinese intelligence officers who exert schemes to get information from the US law enforcement agency may not be relevant to what I have to say. If you wish to read the complete details of the story the link is below. Moving on, I disagree with what a coindesk correspondence had to say, in this Video, about the bribery with bitcoin.

One correspondence pointed out that the bribery was traced because it was issued with bitcoin and the FED should be happy that bitcoin transactions are traceable; including that those PRC intelligent officers would have gone Scot-free if the bribe was given via fiat.

It's quite interesting to have such a view, but in this unsuccessful criminal occurrence, it's not relevant to take sides of which currency would have been used to avoid traces. Because I was pondering about what happened with the bribed officer. Read further and discovered that he worked as a double agent for the FBI. So he divulges every business he had with the PRC intelligence officers. Imagine that the bribery was issued surreptitiously; the GE-1, as he's referred to in the article, if he was a bad cop or kept the bribery a secret from the FBI.

Would they still be any possible trace of the business behind this particular bitcoin transaction? Considering that 60k is not too large a transaction to grasp the suspicion of the FBI. Indeed, there is a ledger for every peer-to-peer transaction, but the reason behind the transaction remains the decentralization if nothing is disclosed to a third party.

I know of two possible ways the FBI can trace a bitcoin transaction

1. Hacking into an exchange
2. If one part of the transaction reports to the FBI as the GE-1 did.

Please, I'm I By any means not getting this right? is it possible to suspect a bitcoin transaction like the one above without being told or given details of what led to the transaction?


https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/two-chinese-intelligence-officers-charged-obstruction-justice-scheme-bribe-us

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[NotATether]

I know of two possible ways the FBI can trace a bitcoin transaction

1. Hacking into an exchange
2. If one part of the transaction reports to the FBI as the GE-1 did.

Please, I'm I By any means not getting this right? is it possible to suspect a bitcoin transaction like the one above without being told or given details of what led to the transaction?

Chain analysis companies use all kinds of metrics to identify an address that is sent and received from several times, and they ascribe real-world names to these addresses (for example: "Binance" or "Primedice"). So they use these named addresses to see if any addresses have sent transactions to them.

This data is then given to the chain analysis company customers and, in the case of law enforcement, they pour through their own secret data dumps to narrow down the possible people who have used such a service and sent the transaction there at a particular time. The more named addresses present the easier it is for law enforcement to identify you [contrary to popular belief, chain analysis companies do NOT have access to KYC dumps unless the customer specifically gives it to them, so they cannot identify you].

[CryptSafe]

Regulations on blockchain or Bitcoin has made it easier to identify a transaction, knowing where it is coming from, where it is going and possibly who the senders and receivers are. It is possible the government agencies could track who did the transaction. Come to talk of it, this was the major reason why the government insist on kyc. So they could know and get information on transaction via third parties and otherwise. If you are talking about the FBI, we all know they are highly sophisticated with equipment and ICT gadgets under their watch. So they knowing who transacts is kit am issues. I think most third party organization on Crypto breach privacy of their customers thereby possibly allowing for details to leak to government agencies with a possible resolution to operate.  I think Third parties should try protect the identity of their clients as agreed upon. It is very dissapointing seeing people's information being leaked online as a result of negligence from Third party organization vested and trusted with clients details.

[goldkingcoiner]

I know of two possible ways the FBI can trace a bitcoin transaction

1. Hacking into an exchange
2. If one part of the transaction reports to the FBI as the GE-1 did.

OR 3. They could also take a look at the public ledger which Bitcoin literally operates on. How is this a regulatory achievement? I really do not understand. Anyone can trace where the Bitcoin goes and where it comes from. The only job the FBI has is waiting for the person to cash out on an exchange or do something in connection with the suspicious Bitcoin on a third party website which logs IP addresses and maybe even demands KYC and demand the host to hand over details on the suspicious account. Its really not that hard to catch the bad guys when it comes to Bitcoin. Bitcoin was never meant to be anonymous.

Regulations on blockchain or Bitcoin has made it easier to identify a transaction, knowing where it is coming from, where it is going and possibly who the senders and receivers are.

Bitcoin is and always was transparent. Its based on transactions which are on a public ledger, so there really is no "surprise" here nor does this show any kind of evidence of effectiveness from "regulations". But if they want to pretend like its their achievement, then that would be a lie.

[Dunamisx]

1. Hacking into an exchange

The FBI does not need to hack into an exchange because they are government and have the legal right to demand for a request from an exchange since they are centralized and the exchange has no right from denying government such request.

Please, I'm I By any means not getting this right? is it possible to suspect a bitcoin transaction like the one above without being told or given details of what led to the transaction?

Blockchain is open to view any transaction going there and that's why it called an open distributed ledger, but tracking the user couldn't be that easy or let say possible if he uses a decentralized exchange, but the question here is that should we be more concern that someone uses bitcoin for accepting a bribe? Have you considered how many times fiat currency had been engaged in all manners of attrocities?

[pooya87]

These things are usually revealed abased o the amount that suddenly appears in someone's bank account. For example the US official who has all his life fully monitored 24/7 suddenly comes to a large sum of money. The agencies seeing this start investigating into his affairs and find the fiat transaction liked to a cryptocurrency exchange and to funds received in a certain date. The rest is just connecting the dots.

In other words bitcoin is the last link they find despite the fact that in the news they mention it first.

[stompix]

Would they still be any possible trace of the business behind this particular bitcoin transaction? Considering that 60k is not too large a transaction to grasp the suspicion of the FBI. Indeed, there is a ledger for every peer-to-peer transaction, but the reason behind the transaction remains the decentralization if nothing is disclosed to a third party.

If the receiver of the coins doesn't move the coins to any centralized exchange, doesn't involve himself in the exchange the coins, and here do note that even if you trade p2p the other guy must know your name your bank account your Paypal address to send you money as your 3rd party service will know the amount that has entered your account, if none of these happen then it will be impossible to trace.
Furthermore, what's really nice with bitcoin is that if you're smart enough to hide the keys so they can't be found even in search there is absolutely no way for someone to prove that you own that wallet and that address.

I always thought cryptos are the best at getting a bribe and getting away with it, just print a QR code and have it sitting randomly on your office desk or on the table when you're hinting the guy to pay up, how would the cops ever prove you've received a bribe? Burn it after the discussion and that's it, your retirement funds are safu!

[DaveF]

If the receiver of the coins doesn't move the coins to any centralized exchange, doesn't involve himself in the exchange the coins, and here do note that even if you trade p2p the other guy must know your name your bank account your Paypal address to send you money as your 3rd party service will know the amount that has entered your account, if none of these happen then it will be impossible to trace.

If you are running your own node / not relying on a wallet that talks to any centralized service. And if the address was generated on an air gaped PC that was booted from CD so no trace remains. Otherwise with enough time and effort and money it can be traced. And remember, the government has all of those things.

Oh, did you run electrum on your phone while connected to the Wi-Fi that is in the building. Don't think THAT was not logged if they wanted it to be.

Would not surprise me if in many government offices crypto requests on known ports and services are all logged or bounced to servers that the government is running.
Lets face it, you can have the electrs back end server running in no time at all and send all the traffic on your network to that one. It does use known ports so it's not that tough.

-Dave

[hatshepsut93]

I always thought cryptos are the best at getting a bribe and getting away with it, just print a QR code and have it sitting randomly on your office desk or on the table when you're hinting the guy to pay up, how would the cops ever prove you've received a bribe? Burn it after the discussion and that's it, your retirement funds are safu!

Problem is, you can't spend a large portion of those coins legally, or it will attract attention and you will get busted. So actually the best bribe is the one that can be reliably laundered, because then you can spend it on a new car or a house or a yacht.

[stompix]

If you are running your own node / not relying on a wallet that talks to any centralized service. And if the address was generated on an air gaped PC that was booted from CD so no trace remains. Otherwise with enough time and effort and money it can be traced. And remember, the government has all of those things.

Oh, did you run electrum on your phone while connected to the Wi-Fi that is in the building. Don't think THAT was not logged if they wanted it to be.

You're overthinking stuff.
All I need to do is install electrum on a laptop and get an address and the seed of the wallet.
Erase everything, throw away the laptop, send the address to the middleman and watch the address in mempool, when the deposit gets confirmed I hand the documents to the spy, I get my passport, I fly to Salvador, and there I restore my wallet. 

You don't need to be connected to anything to receive, also I don't think somebody who has done this and got enough in payments will linger that much in the states after it.

Problem is, you can't spend a large portion of those coins legally, or it will attract attention and you will get busted. So actually the best bribe is the one that can be reliably laundered, because then you can spend it on a new car or a house or a yacht.

Coming from a country that after the fall of communism was corrupted as hell, I wouldn't really care about things 10 years after the event.
The first thing that can send you to prison is to actually receive the bribe and if you don't spend it because of a guilty conscience with BTC at least you can be safe, with any other method you're in danger, bank accounts, gold, a suitcase of money, with everyone is the danger of either being traced or having been filmed when you pick it up.

With the coins in your wallet, you can wait 10 years, become a grandpa trader,  buy a 5 BTC sell 7 BTC, declare all profits, and be totally legit.
Oh, and since you're mentioning yachts, there is no way in hell and no bribery method that would cover something of that size, at that point you have to be the law, much like in Russia for example.

[hugeblack]

This article is more like the phrase “put bitcoin in a sentence that is not useful” as cash can be used for bribery, which is the best because it can be monetized quickly and there are no restrictions to track it. Digitally, bitcoin represents digital cash as all other transfer methods are centralized and the US government can come up with a report Detailed about all account movements and accounts related to it in less than a quarter of an hour.

As for how to obtain the data in Bitcoin, it can start from explorers, passing through full nodes servers, and accessing back doors.

[jokers10]

If the receiver of the coins doesn't move the coins to any centralized exchange, doesn't involve himself in the exchange the coins, and here do note that even if you trade p2p the other guy must know your name your bank account your Paypal address to send you money as your 3rd party service will know the amount that has entered your account, if none of these happen then it will be impossible to trace.
Furthermore, what's really nice with bitcoin is that if you're smart enough to hide the keys so they can't be found even in search there is absolutely no way for someone to prove that you own that wallet and that address.

I always thought cryptos are the best at getting a bribe and getting away with it, just print a QR code and have it sitting randomly on your office desk or on the table when you're hinting the guy to pay up, how would the cops ever prove you've received a bribe? Burn it after the discussion and that's it, your retirement funds are safu!

You always leave some marks and as Bitcoin ledger keeps all data forever any bribe could be discovered at any time. But well, let's imagine that you are clever enough not to get caught, then what about the other side of a deal? They can be much fooler. Solving the crime could be done at any time and all data is safely kept in the ledger. Cash is still much more attractive for bribetakers and bribers as it is dangerous at the time of a bribe deal only. And as for bribe in BTC bribetakers and bribers can never feel themselves safe.

[kryptqnick]

It's a cool story of how the FBI conducted a successful operation and how the double agent's integrity was actually in place. However, I agree with the op that in this case, the currency (Bitcoin or fiat, digital or cash) does not matter because the double agent simply told superiors about the bribe, it wasn't traced back to him. So this story doesn't tell anything about whether Bitcoin is better or worse than fiat for bribery or for fighting crime. We don't know whether they would have noticed the bribe had their officer decided to keep it a secret.