With terror attacks tied to cryptocurrency projected to quadruple, the U.K. has approved new rules making it easier for law enforcement to seize crypto connected to terrorists. As Coin Desk reported recently, the rules were proposed as amendments to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency bill. “This addresses a gap in current counterterrorism legislation,” Tom Tugendhat, the minister of state responsible for crime and terrorism regulation, said last week. He added that the counterterrorism legislation will “importantly mitigate the risk posed by those that cannot be prosecuted under the criminal system, but use their proceeds stored as crypto assets to perpetrate further criminality.” Last month, PYMNTS reported that Svetlana Martynova, a senior legal officer on the United Nations counterterrorism committee, projected terrorist attacks linked to digital assets could quadruple from previously reported attacks. Only a few years ago, just 5% of UN-analyzed terror attacks showed ties to crypto financing or trading, but “now we’re thinking that it may reach about 20%,” Martynova told Bloomberg News. The UN is not taking this rise in crypto crime lightly, and it’s possible a UN Security Council resolution could be introduced to urge member states to deal with the risks connected to virtual assets and terrorism financing.
Full story : UK Lawmakers Approve Rules to Ease Seizure of Terror-Linked Crypto.
