A Greek court has ruled to extradite the alleged former operator of crypto exchange BTC-e, Alexander Vinnik, to France, local news outlet CNN Greece reported Friday, July 13. The 39-year old Russian national Vinnik, also known colloquially as “Mr. Bitcoin,” was indicted by U.S. authorities on charges of fraud and money laundering last year, reportedly involving up to $4 billion in Bitcoin (BTC). Vinnik’s Greek lawyer Ilias Spyrliadis confirmed to Russian news agency TASS that “the court has granted France’s request for Vinnik’s extradition.” Spyrliadis also revealed that he is planning to appeal against the court’s decision in the Greek …

Digital currency fraud will form one of the areas of “particular attention” for a new U.S. anti-crime task force with participation from several government bodies, according to an executive order issued July 11. The Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud, which will have the U.S. deputy attorney general as its chair and associate attorney general as vice chair, seeks to “provide guidance for the investigation and prosecution of cases involving fraud on the government, the financial markets, and consumers.” The executive order outlining the taskforce highlights areas of particular attention as “digital currency fraud,” as well as fraud …

An ad exchange network is combining an artificial intelligence (AI) system with blockchain technology to tackle eye-watering levels of fraud in the industry and stop consumers from being bombarded with irrelevant ads at inappropriate times. NOIZ Chain says the public, and the brands trying to reach them through advertising, have seen their patience wear thin following a slew of scandals involving digital media. While consumers have been reeling from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, that resulted in millions of Facebook users having their data sold and used without consent, advertisers have been falling victim to bots which generate fake clicks, meaning …

More than a thousand of crypto projects are “already dead” as of June 30, 2018, according to a recent TechCrunch report. The news outlet has based its claim on data from two websites: Coinopsy and DeadCoins. Coinopsy provides daily reviews of various cryptocurrencies, including ones that are already “dead.” It defines a “dead” token as exhibiting at least one of the following: “abandoned, scammed, website dead, no nodes, wallet issues, no social updates, low volume or developers have walked away from the project.” According to Coinopsy’s list, there are 247 “dead” coins as of press time. These include the notorious …

According to an expert at the Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point Software Technologies (CHKP), crypto-related crimes would exceed the number of all other cyberattacks in 2018, the Times Of Israel reports June 22. The expert defined “cryptocurrency-related cyberattacks” as any form of cybercrime that involves crypto, including scams and hacks. Speaking on a panel at the “Blockchain, The New Digital Age” event at Tel Aviv University, CHKP expert Lotem Finkelsteen said that illegal activity in the initial coin offering (ICO) market is the main obstacle to the development of blockchain technology. “Not a day goes by without our hearing about …

U.S. Representative Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) said the initial coin offering (ICO) market needs “light touch” regulation on CNBC's Squawk Box today, June 21. When asked about cryptocurrency regulation, Davidson argued that the “big thing” the market needs is a “light touch regulatory framework” which, according to the congressman, would provide more certainty. Davidson stressed the necessity of defining the status of cryptocurrencies, pointing out the recent announcement of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the top altcoin Ethereum (ETH) will be considered a commodity rather than a security. He added that the government still “[has not] put together” …

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has received an additional emergency court order to freeze the assets of Dominic Lacroix, owner of PlexCorps, in an ongoing enforcement action, Crowdfund Insider reported June 20. The SEC had previously sued Lacroix for securities fraud and received an emergency asset freeze order in December, 2017. The order was unsealed June 18. The SEC alleges that, since December, Lacroix has been using secret accounts, including an account in his brother’s name which he controlled, to dissipate assets obtained from investors with the PlexCoin ICO. The SEC is looking to collect interest, penalties, as …

IBM iX has partnered with software supplier Mediaocean to launch a blockchain-powered tracker for digital media transactions, the company tweeted June 19. IBM iX is the business and tech consulting wing of international technology giant IBM. According to IBM iX, the main purpose for applying blockchain in the media ecosystem is to “clean things up” in the media buying industry. "The promise of #blockchain will scale the opportunity to clean things up [in media buying]." @rmaster of @Unilever during the announcement of a major partnership between IBM and Mediaocean to integrate blockchain across the media ecosystem. #CannesLions #ReinventMarketing pic.twitter.com/S9Hd8f7JAV — …

Belgian authorities have launched a website to raise awareness of the risks associated with investments in crypto, the FPS Economy (FPS) announced in a public statement June 5. The FPS noted the sharp spike in interest towards crypto investments, which they said “causes a lot more people to be scammed.” According to the statement, Belgian investors reported the loss of €2.2 mln ($2.5 mln) in crypto scams to the FPS last year. The FPS said that this is “just the tip of the iceberg” as only 4 percent of crypto fraud cases are reported. Per their estimations, investors in Belgium …

Risk management giant LexisNexis has partnered with crypto exchange Blockbid to increase the exchanges security measures Blockbid reports on its Medium account June 4. Blockbid is reportedly one of the first trading platforms to voluntarily observe global anti-money laundering (AML) measures by partnering with LexisNexis and ThreatMetrix security technology firms. Boosting fraud prevention and know your customer (KYC) measures in respect to banks, the solution “Trade with Confidence” intends to prevent crypto being used in cases of money laundering, terrorism financing, human trafficking, and other illegal activity. According to the blog post, the newly adopted technology by Melbourne-based exchange Blockbid …

A company has launched a new blockchain-powered identity verification app to help users avoid online fraud during internet transactions. Blockpass also aims to counter the repetitive task of constantly entering proof of identity across different platforms, such as new bank accounts and travel document applications. The idea of the project is to allow customers to store their data via the blockchain-powered app, cutting out the time consuming manual compliance procedures. After initially submitting their personal information, customers’ identity can be verified by “trusted compliance platforms.” An “anonymous cryptographic code” representing their data will then appear on the blockchain, which will …

US and Canadian state and provincial securities regulators have opened probes into potentially fraudulent crypto investment programs in what has been dubbed “Operation Cryptosweep”, according to a press release May 21. The latest crackdown on suspicious crypto investment products is reportedly the largest such coordinated investigation by state and provincial officials. Regulators from across 40 jurisdictions coordinated by the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) have initiated up to 70 investigations, with more to come in the following weeks. Securities regulators have reportedly warned as many as 35 companies about violations of state securities laws with some cases resulting in …