The long arm of justice: How far can the DoJ really go in prosecuting foreign actors?

The long arm of justice: How far can the DoJ really go in prosecuting foreign actors?

November 21, 2020, CoinTelegraph

Arlo Devlin-Brown spoke with CoinTelegraph about the DOJ’s Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework and its extension of prosecution outside U.S. borders. Mr. Devlin-Brown says, “The DOJ has consistently taken the position that U.S. criminal jurisdiction extends to activity with minimal ties to the U.S., and U.S. courts have in many cases embraced the DOJ's expansive interpretation of its authority. Cryptocurrency businesses that operate outside the U.S. but have any ties to this country — bank accounts, customers, marketing activity — are at risk of enforcement action.

He adds that the Justice Department can rely on a number of powerful statutes that can be used to prosecute foreign-based cryptocurrency actors. “For example, the U.S. money laundering statute can reach almost any dollar-denominated transaction that U.S. authorities can establish as linked to many types of criminal activity. Even a dollar-denominated payment from, say, Germany to Argentina is covered because the transaction would likely involve a U.S. bank as an intermediary,” he says.