{"id":54736,"date":"2023-12-13T07:06:22","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T07:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/markets\/crypto\/irs-spotlights-most-notable-cryptocurrency-scams-in-2023\/"},"modified":"2023-12-13T07:06:23","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T07:06:23","slug":"irs-spotlights-most-notable-cryptocurrency-scams-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=54736","title":{"rendered":"IRS Spotlights Most Notable Cryptocurrency Scams in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_141604\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-141604\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><noscript><\/noscript><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-141604\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: Pixabay \/ stevepb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The U.S. Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) division has released its list of the top 10 criminal cases of 2023. These cases include the IRS\u2018s most prominent and high-profile investigations with a significant focus on cryptocurrency-related crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Among the top 10 cases, four involved high-profile cryptocurrency frauds and tax evasion schemes. These included the Silk Road Bitcoin seizure, the sentencing of OneCoin co-founder for a multi-billion dollar scam, the imprisonment of Amir Bruno Elmaani, founder of Oyster Pearl, for tax evasion; and the conviction of Ian Freeman in a Bitcoin money laundering scheme.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBillions of dollars in fraud, victims across the globe and criminals who are all about personal gain. That\u2019s the crux of 2023\u2019s top 10 cases,\u201d said Criminal Investigation Chief Jim Lee. \u201cWhen I say our team at CI is the best at following the money trail, I mean it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur investigators took down international tax schemes that preyed on people\u2019s personal information, investigated multi-level marketing schemes involving cryptocurrency and uncovered one of the largest fraud schemes in history centered around renewable fuel credits,\u201d said Lee.<\/p>\n<h2>High Profile Crypto Scheme and Tax Evasion<\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"replacer\"><\/span><br \/>Karl Sebastian Greenwood, co-founder of the notorious OneCoin scheme, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for orchestrating a vast global fraud. Initiated in 2014, OneCoin, under the guise of a legitimate crypto, duped millions of investors worldwide, leading to over $4 billion in fraudulent investments. Greenwood, along with Ruja Ignatova, known as the Cryptoqueen, masterminded this multi-level-marketing network, which was rooted in misrepresentations and deceit. In addition to his prison sentence, Greenwood was also ordered to forfeit approximately $300 million, marking a significant crackdown on one of the largest cryptocurrency scams to date.<\/p>\n<p>Amir Elmaani, known as \u201cBruno Block,\u201d the founder of Oyster Protocol, was sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion, admitting to unreported profits from selling Pearl tokens and causing over $5.5 million in tax losses. His fraudulent activities in 2017 included minting and dumping PRL tokens on the market, misleading investors, and concealing substantial earnings through extravagant purchases and family proxies, resulting in a substantial restitution order of $5.5 million.<\/p>\n<h2>IRS Continues to Hit Crypto AML Cases<\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"replacer\"><\/span><br \/>Anti-money laundering (AML) was also highlighted in the list. Ian Freeman was sentenced to 96 months in prison for laundering over $10 million through a Bitcoin scheme, involving romance scams and internet frauds. He failed to register his business legally and disabled anti-money laundering measures at his Bitcoin kiosks. Freeman used church-related accounts to hide these activities and evade taxes from 2016 to 2019. He\u2019s also required to pay restitution to victims, with the amount to be determined later.<\/p>\n<div class=\"newsletter home-newsletter single\">\n<div class=\"left-side\">\n<p>\n        <em>Enter your email for our Free Daily Newsletter<\/em>\n    <\/p>\n<p> A quick 3min read about today&#8217;s crypto news!<\/p>\n<p>    <span class=\"response-msg\" id=\"newsletter-response\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"recaptcha-text\">\n        This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google<br \/>\n        Privacy Policy and<br \/>\n        Terms of Service apply.\n    <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptonews.com\/news\/irs-spotlights-most-notable-cryptocurrency-scams-in-2023.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Pixabay \/ stevepb The U.S. Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) division has released its list of the top 10 criminal cases of 2023. These cases include the IRS\u2018s most prominent and high-profile investigations with a significant focus on cryptocurrency-related crimes. Among the top 10 cases, four involved high-profile cryptocurrency frauds and tax evasion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-54736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crypto"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>IRS Spotlights Most Notable Cryptocurrency Scams in 2023 | Prosfunds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Source: Pixabay \/ stevepb The U.S. Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) division has released its list of the top 10 criminal cases of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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