Victorian police to get 'greater power' to seize crypto assets from criminals

cointelegraph.com:

Victorian Police in Australia will soon be granted new powers to seize cryptocurrency and digital assets from criminals, as well as compel platforms to hand over information about suspects.

According to a statement released by Victorian premier Daniel Andrews on Aug. 2, new laws were introduced to parliament on Tuesday under the Major Crime and Community Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, with the aim of cracking down on organized crime in the state.

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

The laws will uphold also require crypto exchanges disclose information to assist with criminal investigations in the same way that banks would.

It will also give police greater search powers to obtain electronic data when executing search warrants and make the criminal’s “forfeited property” more easily available to compensate victims of the crime.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Michael Bacina, a digital asset specialist at Piper Alderman, said that as the wording of the Bill has not yet been made public, one of the challenges he sees is around legislating for digital assets when it cuts across state and federal borders.

Bacina also noted that police will need “proper training in the technology of seizure and securing private keys of digital wallets,” but also noted that criminals transacting in digital assets “provides a valuable tool for police in combatting crime, as transactions leave an immutable trail of evidence on a public ledger which is extraordinarily difficult to alter after the fact.”

Victorian Minister for Police, Anthony Carbines acknowledged that criminals are evolving their strategies,