Australian Police Seizes $6.4M in Crypto Linked to Criminal Group Head

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Sujha Sundararajan

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Sujha Sundararajan

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Last updated:

October 2, 2024 03:57 EDT

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The Australian Federal Police (AFP) seized AU$9.3 million (US$6.4 million) in cryptocurrency during an investigation linked to the mastermind behind Ghost, an encrypted communication platform.

Announced Wednesday, AFP arrested Jay Je Yoon Jung, a 32-year-old suspect, on September 17, under “Operation Kraken.” The Narwee-based man has been charged with five offences, including supporting a criminal group.

The assets were confiscated after an analytics specialist within the AFP-led task force decoded the “seed phrase” of alleged accounts. The Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT), under the AFP, then transferred the crypto assets to its secure storage.

Acting Commander Raven noted that the AFP is keen on identifying and restraining “ill-gotten goods” such as cryptos.

“The restraint of these assets shows the technical capabilities and powers that the AFP, and our partners through the CACT, are able to bring to bear on organised crime.”

The announcement read that the crypto assets were confiscated under the Commonwealth Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. “The CACT will seek to have the restrained assets forfeited to the Commonwealth in due course.”

The multimillion-dollar seizure marks the second linked to AFP Operation Kraken. Last month, a Perth man was held for having cryptos and properties worth AU$2 million (US$1.3 million).

The Australian police force has been investigating losses from crypto “phishing scams.” In August, the AFP joined forces with blockchain data firm Chainalysis and found that at least 2,000 Australian-owned crypto wallets had been compromised.

The investigations—dubbed Operation Spincaster—have shed light on cybercriminals’ new “approval phishing” tactics using cryptos. AFP-collaborated Operation Spincaster aims at these approval phishing scams via education, tools and training.

Further, the police noted at the time that cryptocurrency exchanges BTC Markets, Binance, Crypto.com, Ebonex, Independent Reserve, OKX, SwyftX and Wayex are also working to prevent Australians from these scams.