NFTs and crypto, according to a top special agent from the Internal Revenue Service, represent the “future,” yet fraud and manipulation are still pervasive in the industry. The statements were expressed by Ryan Korner of the IRS Criminal Investigation’s Los Angeles field office during a virtual session hosted by the USC Gould School of Law on Tuesday. “We’re simply witnessing mountains and mountains of fraud in this sector,” Korner added, according to Bloomberg.
He informed about rapid expansion of the crypto sector but use isn’t restricted to payments and trading. He mentioned celebrities’ engagement in the area, likely referring to Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather, who recently made headlines for pushing an apparently bogus coin called EthereumMax.
Korner said this field is the future and wouldn’t go away. Korner also noted that the IRS has worked with other federal agencies, including the Justice Department, to “ensure that everyone is on the same page and keeping ahead of the fraudsters,” according to him.
During the fiscal year 2021, IRS officers seized USD 3.5 billion in cryptocurrency linked to financial offences. This represented 93 percent of the assets confiscated by the division during that time period. “At the end of the year, IRS CI had 80 cases in its inventory that it was still actively working on, with the predominant infraction being crypto,” Korner added.
