Detectives of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine together with representatives of the IRS Criminal Investigation Service (IRS-CI, USA) will investigate criminal offenses using the latest technologies. The detectives of the ESBU acquired the skills of tracking the sources of blockchain funds and exposing cryptocurrency transactions at cyber exercises in Frankfurt, Germany.

The exchange of information and joint investigations will help identify financial schemes, including those used by sanctioned russian oligarchs trying to hide their assets.

"Global financial crimes often consist of complex networks of offshore holdings and anonymous transactions. In these trainings, participants honed their digital investigative skills to trace the source of blockchain funds and expose cryptocurrency transactions using forensic tools," said chief IRS-CI Jim Lee, during the training.

The training was also attended by representatives of the cyber departments of the National police of Ukraine and the Security Service of Ukraine.

Background: IRS-CI is the IRS Criminal Investigation Division responsible for investigating financial crimes including tax fraud, drug trafficking, money laundering, government corruption, health care fraud, identity theft and more.

IRS-CI is currently conducting 23 sanctions compliance investigations against companies, entities, and individuals that have been identified as threats to U.S national security and foreign and economic policy. The agency actively works with the office of Foreign assets control which maintains sanctions lists to promptly freeze assets controlled by or associated with individuals on the Specially designated nationals and blocked persons list.

It will be recalled that the agreements regarding the training were reached during the visit the delegation of the ESBU to Washington within the framework of the "Program of international visitors". More details https://esbu.gov.ua/en/news/esbu-will-cooperate-with-the-us-internal-revenue-service