Victorian Police Will Get 'Greater Power' To Seize Criminals' Crypto Assets

The new bill will also require cryptocurrency exchanges to hand over information that could help police in criminal investigations. New

Victorian police in Australia will soon be given new powers to seize cryptocurrency and digital assets from criminals, as well as compel platforms to provide information on suspects.

According to a statement released by Victorian Prime Minister Daniel Andrews on Tuesday, new laws were introduced in Parliament on Tuesday as part of the Major Crimes and Community Safety Amendment Bill 2022, in an attempt to crack down on organized crime in the state.< /p>

The new bill is expected to give authorities "greater power" to identify and seize digital assets in response to the growing use of cryptocurrencies by organized crime.

The laws will also require crypto exchanges to disclose information to aid criminal investigations in the same way that banks would:

"They will be able to compel cryptocurrency platforms to provide information on suspects as banks must currently do, and seize digital 'wallets'."

It will also give police greater search powers to obtain electronic data when executing search warrants and will make the criminal's "forfeited assets" more readily available to compensate victims of the crime.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Michael Bacina, digital asset specialist at Piper Alderman, said that as the wording of the bill has yet to be made public, one of the challenges he sees is to legislate digital assets as they pass through the state. and federal borders:

"One of the challenges of digital asset legislation is that state jurisdiction often stops at the border, so ensuring consistency of approach across different states and countries is paramount."

Bacina also noted that the police will need...