The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO), a specialist prosecuting authority tackling the top level of serious or complex fraud, bribery and corruption, has stated that it is aware that digital currency bitcoin is being increasingly used by criminals.
The comments come as a response to the question that asked, “What studies have been done by your department [SFO] into the investigation of Bitcoin being used in criminal activity?”
The agency said that it would consider specific allegations of bitcoin being used to perpetrate serious or complex fraud. It noted that such a case might represent a new or emerging type of fraud.
“The SFO is aware of increasing use of Bitcoin by criminals but has not conducted any specific studies into the impact of this type of crime”, the SFO added.
According to CoinDesk, these recent remarks seem to be the agency’s first public statements on bitcoin. It follows HM Treasury’s report released last year that emphasized that digital currencies pose low money laundering risk, as evidenced by a limited number of case studies providing conclusions that digital currencies are used for money laundering.
“There is little evidence to indicate that the use of digital currencies has been adopted by criminals involved in terrorist financing, whether as a means by which to raise funds (crowd funding etc.), to pay for infrastructure (e.g. server rental), or to transfer funds”, it said.
Established in 1988, the SFO is a part of the UK criminal justice system covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but not Scotland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands. It works with other law enforcement partners to tackle the challenges faced from serious and organised crime in line with the Government’s Serious and Organised Crime Strategy.
