Victorian Police Now Have the Power to Seize Cryptocurrency Wallets

• Police in Victoria will be able to recover cryptocurrencies from criminals.
• New rules will give Victorian police greater power to identify cyber scammers.

As per the reports, the Victorian Police in Australia will shortly receive the power to seize cryptocurrency wallets and digital assets from cyber criminals, under the newly released crime laws. To combat organized crime in the state, new laws were introduced in the parliament under the Major Crime and Community Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. 

In response to the growing use of cryptocurrencies by organized crime, the new bill is expected to give authorities higher influence to identify and seize digital assets. The laws will also require major crypto exchange platforms to disclose information to assist with criminal investigations, just as banks do. 

Minister for Police, Anthony Carbine expressed:

The law changes were about police powers being updated to reflect modern crime. The way criminals operate is changing rapidly. We need to be just as quick in empowering our police to respond to new ways of offending.

Attacks Continuous Over Digital Assets

The newly introduced laws will enable police in countering the growing problem of cybercrime. Also, it provides the police force greater search powers when executing search warrants to obtain electronic data and makes the criminal’s forfeited property more easily available to compensate victims of the crime.

Following this, the premier commercial law firm, Piper Alderman’s spokesperson pointed out that the police will require proper training in the technology of seizure and securing private keys of digital wallets. He further added that the criminals transacting in digital assets provide a valuable tool for police in combating crime. Additionally, the transactions leave an immutable trail of evidence on a public ledger that is extremely difficult to alter after the fact.

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