Criminals increasingly using cryptocurrency like…

Criminals increasingly using cryptocurrency like Bitcoin to hide gains as garda agency cracks down

The Criminal Assets Bureau is seeing more crafty criminals using cryptocurrency to hide their ill-gotten gains.

Bureau legal officer Kevin McMeel admitted that it’s trickier for the Garda agency to get at cyber-savvy thugs but they are facing them head on and winning.

Speaking on a two-part series about the work of the organisation, Mr McMeel said: “We at the Criminal Assets Bureau see the increased use of cryptocurrency as being a unique challenge that we have, but it’s one I think we have met quite well in recent years.

“Cryptocurrency by its very nature is very difficult to identify and locate.”

And he said that one of the successful cases the organisation has had involving cryptocurrency in recent years was that of Conor Freeman, 21, who took part in the online theft of more than $2million worth of cryptocurrencies.

Freeman, of Glenageary Court, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, had been identified by US Homeland Security as having taken part in the thefts along with five others and was jailed for three years in November 2020.

He pleaded guilty to knowingly engaging in the possession of the proceeds of crime or 142.75682712 Bitcoin.

Speaking about the successful operation, Mr McMeel said: “He had stolen the cryptocurrency from unsuspecting individuals.

“I think there was somewhere in the region of $30million that was stolen by a group of which Mr Freeman was a member.

“We were able to assist the investigation and seize those assets and we were able to serve an order of initially €1million of cryptocurrency.

“But by the time we got to court the value of that had increased exponentially and I think it was €5.3million and we sold it at a good price.

“We were able to return through restoration that money to the injured parties. I think there were six people.”

Another successful case CAB has investigated which is featured on the documentary is that of Noel “Kingsize” Duggan.

The veteran criminal, who was blasted to death as he sat in his car in March 2016, was targeted by the bureau under then bureau chief Felix McKenna.

Mr McKenna said: “Noel Duggan was one of what I would describe as one of the offshoots of a major Dublin crime boss who we investigated under Operation Alpha.

“He had links to serious crime in the inner city. He was known as Kingsize.

“He was very much involved in the sale of counterfeit cigarettes, stolen cigarettes and smuggled cigarettes into the city. He would have had an array or army of people selling cigarettes on the street. He was generating an enormous amount of money from that.

“He ran some kind of warehouse around the city where lorry loads of shall we say, stolen property, could be offloaded and he would sell it.

“In the investigation into his activities CAB used his revenue and the revenue bureau officers accessed him for tax over a number of years.

“Noel Duggan agreed a settlement with us and as a result to achieve that settlement we sold an apartment complex in Smithfield which had 14 apartments in it.