Belarus’s Investigative Committee head, Dmitry Gora, told in an interview about the challenges that they first faced while trying to figure out how to seize cryptocurrencies when the assets were first found to be used in drug trade and later economic crimes.
He further states that law enforcement agencies had to figure out a way to seize such digital assets and have already collected crypto worth hundreds of millions of Belarusian rubles (millions of U.S. dollars).
Meanwhile, a close ally of Russia, the former Soviet republic, has introduced several crypto-related activities along with a presidential decree which was implemented in May 2008. Tax breaks along with other incentives for crypto firms running as residents of the Hi-Tech Park (HTP) in Minsk were introduced through documents as an effort to build the digital economy in the country.
President Alexander Lukashenko also suggested stricter crypto regulations in the country in March 2021, giving the example of China.Later, HTP officials revealed that there is no such intention of authorities to implement stricter regulations for the sector. The finance ministry also suggested some amendments to enable investment funds for acquiring cryptocurrencies.
The Ministry of Justice as part of enforcement proceedings have embraced a legal procedure that enables the seizure of crypto funds, in april of this year. It applies another decree by Lukashenko from February who instructed to maintain a separate register for crypto wallets involved in any kind of illegal activities.
Furthermore, Dmitry Gora quoted his “advanced subordinates,” according to whom, cryptocurrencies are nothing but “digital trash.”
He then goes on to explain that on the basis of this, he set a goal that the state requires money in order to compensate for the damage done. He says if that’s the case, then we should learn how to earn money from trash. He didn’t reveal any details but emphasized that we have learned how to go about it. He adds that there are mechanisms for handling such issues, that too quite successfully.
The law enforcement executive highlighted that both government agencies and commercial organizations are part of the process. Consequently, Gora explains that “the amounts that are already in the form of good, normal money are on the accounts of the Investigative Committee.”
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/05/30/belarus-chief-investigator-reveals-country-have-seized-millions-of-dollars-in-crypto/