1: binance, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, has recently hired two former irs agents, matthew price and tigran gambaryan, who have years of experience chasing multi-billion crypto criminals. price led investigations on helix, a bitcoin tumbler associated with illicit dark web trades, and was able to link an identity to the account – larry harmon of akron, ohio, who pleaded guilty and forfeited more than 4,400 bitcoin. gambaryan has been a key figure in the world of cryptocurrency investigations since 2011 and has led investigations into some of the most high-profile crypto cases.
2: price and gambaryan have been able to help their former colleagues at the irs, responding to more than 27,000 law enforcement requests with an average of three days response time. binance has also added to its ranks a dark web specialist from europol and a compliance director from etoro. over $310 million was processed in crypto through helix, and harmon pleaded guilty and forfeited more than 4,400 bitcoin.
3: price suggested that tech-savvy criminals often make seemingly-trivial mistakes, and gambaryan’s work on the silk road case resulted in the conviction of two federal agents. with traditional finance, money launderers can set up offshore entities and accounts to slow down law enforcement, but with crypto investigators can “skip that whole thing.” price and pierce found crypto exchanges to be a refreshing change compared to banks, and pierce believes that with the help of his knowledge and experience, he is able to help law enforcement identify and go after people who are exploiting the system.
https://decrypt.co/113985/former-irs-agents-at-binance-are-keeping-crypto-crime-free
