STARK COUNTY, Ohio — Law enforcement in Stark County has created a task force to fight cryptocurrency fraud and help scam victims get their money back.
The TRACE team (Technology, Response, and Crypto Enforcement) includes representatives from the Stark County Sheriff's Office and the Jackson Township Police Department. The team uses specialized technology to track and recover stolen funds.
Jackson Township Police Detective Jeff Aynes is the team's lead detective.
"We try and follow as quickly as we can to get to a point where we can send a court order and try to freeze and seize some of the assets that have been stolen," Aynes said. "The systems that we pay for give us attribution, which tells us if it goes to an exchange, which would be the equivalent of a bank if you were transferring money, the exchange is where it's held in an address or a wallet."
That information is public, so criminals get crafty to make it hard to track the money.
"They follow a lot of the same practices as money laundering, so they try and obfuscate their transactions by doing bulk transactions, sending small amounts," Aynes said. "It's very difficult for us to stay ahead of it. We have to be lucky and good."
The TRACE team is delivering impressive results.
"We've seized over a million dollars," said Aynes. "We've been able to return about $300,000 to victims and we're still looking for the other victims to return more of that money."
Perry Township Police recently partnered with the TRACE team after a man lost $15,000 in a Bitcoin scam.
Criminals convinced the man that he owed money to the Social Security Administration.
"They're keeping this person on the phone, making it so he can't talk to anybody else or even have time to verify this using that urgency tactic," said Perry Township Police Detective Danielle Paciorek.
Paciorek said they recovered a majority of the man's money.
"For them to be able to help us and use their tools and resources to help our residents is huge and we really appreciate that," Paciorek said.
Sergeant Bill Konic from Stark County's Sheriff's Office hopes more law enforcement agencies partner with the TRACE team.
"We're willing to help because a lot of agencies either don't have the manpower, they don't have the money to pour into some of these expenses," Konic said. "I'm sure more agencies will start to reach out once as much as we can spread the word about it."
Meantime, Aynes is working with state lawmakers to pass a law to combat financial fraud related to cryptocurrency kiosks.
Ohio House Bill 648 would impose restrictions on crypto ATMs.
"With this new legislation that's coming out, the regulation will make it a lot easier for us to limit what the victim can lose in that 72-hour period," Aynes said. "They've put some regulation on these companies to reimburse the fees that are associated with that transaction as well."
The bill is currently being considered by the House Financial Institutions Committee.
