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Digital Assets Department of Justice (DOJ) Criminal Prosecution

Alston & Bird

DOJ Refines Illicit Finance Enforcement Approach for DeFi

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Our White Collar, Government & Internal Investigations Group reviews several Department of Justice statements that together signal how it will enforce illicit finance risks in decentralized finance (DeFi), focusing on...more

Secretariat

Navigating New Rules of the Road: How Companies Can Adapt to Revised DOJ Guidance on Criminal Prosecutions

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Since the election in November 2024, there have been many changes to DOJ’s enforcement policies. Earlier this year, now-Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division, Matthew R. Galeotti, announced at the...more

Morgan Lewis

US Department of Justice: ‘Well-Intentioned Innovators’ Will Not Be Prosecuted

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Recent statements from the US Department of Justice, the White House, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission indicate a safer environment for responsible risk-taking in digital assets and derivatives....more

Latham & Watkins LLP

DOJ Official Addresses DeFi Platform Developer Liability Under Money Transmission Statute

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DOJ will focus on criminal intent over mere code creation, seeking to balance legal accountability with support for innovation....more

Polsinelli

Blockchain+ Bi-Weekly—SEC Issues Guidance Regarding Liquid Staking Tokens and Trial of Privacy Technology Developer Ends in Mixed...

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Congress may be in its August recess, but the crypto legal developments have not slowed. The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance released long-awaited guidance on Proof-of-Stake liquid staking tokens, clarifying when such...more

BakerHostetler

Weekly Blockchain Blog - August 2025 #3

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US Stablecoin Issuers Announce Bank Charter Application, New L1 Network - Paxos, a blockchain infrastructure and tokenization platform and issuer of the USDP stablecoin, recently announced that it “has filed an application...more

Perkins Coie

Second Circuit Narrows Scope of Federal Criminal Fraud Statute in NFT “Insider Trading” Case

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In United States v. Chastain, a split panel of the Second Circuit recently vacated the convictions of a former executive of an NFT marketplace who had been charged with misusing confidential information to trade NFTs for...more

Husch Blackwell LLP

CFTC Enforcement Division Issues Framework for DOJ Criminal Referrals

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On July 9, 2025, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Division of Enforcement (DOE), acting pursuant to a recent executive order (EO), issued an advisory letter outlining its new policy for referring criminally...more

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

DOJ shifts focus on digital asset enforcement

Recently, the Deputy Attorney General for the DOJ released a memo that outlined a new policy direction for the DOJ regarding the enforcement of laws related to digital assets. The memo emphasized ending the previous...more

ArentFox Schiff

Changes in DOJ Policy on Digital Assets Enforcement

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On April 7, the Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Todd Blanche issued a memorandum entitled “Ending Regulation By Prosecution,” detailing a significant shift in the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) approach to digital assets....more

Ballard Spahr LLP

A New Era for Digital Assets: The Impact of DOJ’s Shift Away from Regulation by Prosecution and Its Implications

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In a significant policy shift, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memorandum titled “Ending Regulation By Prosecution,” on April 7, 2025, signaling a change in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) approach to digital...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

DOJ Narrows Crypto Enforcement Focus to Fraud and Criminal Conduct

On April 7, in a significant policy shift, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced via the release of a memorandum that it will no longer pursue criminal enforcement actions that effectively impose regulatory...more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

U.S. Department of Justice Curtails “Regulation by Prosecution” in Digital Asset Enforcement

A new DOJ policy directs prosecutors to focus on crypto fraud and use of digital assets to facilitate other crimes. On April 7, 2025, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a Memorandum titled, “Ending Regulation by...more

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

First Stand-Alone Crypto Tax Fraud Case Leads to Two-Year Prison Sentence

On December 12, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that Frank Richard Ahlgren III was sentenced to two years in prison for filing a false tax return underreporting gains from selling $3.7 million in...more

BakerHostetler

Weekly Blockchain Blog - November 2024 #4

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Stablecoin Initiatives Announced by Fintech Companies, DeFi Protocols - Major U.S. payments firm recently announced plans to enable “disbursement partners” to use the PYUSD stablecoin to settle cross-border money...more

BakerHostetler

Weekly Blockchain Blog - November 2024 #3

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Crypto Exchanges and Stablecoin Issuers Announce Multiple New Products - Multiple crypto sector companies have recently announced new products. In a press release, LayerZero, “an omnichain interoperability protocol that...more

BakerHostetler

Weekly Blockchain Blog - June 2024 #4

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Crypto Companies Announce Licenses, Acquisitions, New Products - According to recent reports, a major Chicago-based digital asset trading desk recently obtained a BitLicense from the New York Department of Financial...more

BakerHostetler

No Further Warnings - Prosecutors Bring First Pure Legal Digital Asset Tax Indictment; More Criminal Cases to Come

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After years of explicitly warning taxpayers that failing to report or underreporting income from transactions involving digital assets would lead to criminal charges, federal prosecutors are now beginning to follow through on...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

Crypto Couple Plead Guilty to Money Laundering Conspiracy

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In February 2022, we blogged on the seizure of a record $3.6 billion in stolen Bitcoin (“BTC”) and an accompanying criminal complaint, charging husband and wife Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan with...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

DOJ Relies on Traditional Statutes To Charge Defendants in Cryptoasset Fraud Cases

Two recent indictments highlight the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) continuing use of the traditional wire fraud, money laundering and identity theft statutes to pursue fraud involving digital assets, indicating that law...more

BakerHostetler

New Crypto Payment and Web3 Products Launch; UK Seeks Input on DeFi Taxation; OFAC Fines Crypto Exchange; SEC, DOJ, CFTC Continue...

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Multiple Financial Services Firms Announce New Crypto Products - A major U.S. financial services firm recently launched its Crypto Credential product, “a set of common standards and infrastructure that will help verify...more

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

U.S., German law enforcement disable darknet crypto mixer

On March 15, U.S. law enforcement, along with German criminal authorities, disabled a darknet cryptocurrency “mixing” service used to allegedly launder more than $3 billion in cryptocurrency underlying ransomware, darknet...more

BakerHostetler

Australia and BIS Address CBDCs; OCC, PCAOB and U.S. Senators Address Crypto Risks; SEC, DOJ and USSS Continue Crypto Enforcement...

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Reserve Bank of Australia and BIS Commence Efforts to Advance CBDCs - In a recent announcement, the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) released details on an ongoing...more

Perkins Coie

DOJ Brings First Criminal Charges Stemming From Use of Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plan

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On March 1, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed an indictment against the CEO of a publicly traded healthcare company (the Executive) relating to charges of an insider trading scheme. The indictment represents...more

Polsinelli

“Now Yous Can’t Leave”: SEC Finds Itself in Formidable Fight Over Attempt to Assert Regulatory Domain over Secondary Sales of...

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In July of 2022, the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) each alleged insider trading violations against a former Coinbase employee Ishan Wahi (“Ishan”), his brother...more

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