PANews reported on October 8 that according to CoinDesk, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) called on Southeast Asian countries to criminalize the operation of unlicensed money service businesses or virtual asset service providers (VASPs). In a report released on Monday, the agency pointed out that some VASPs - including those associated with known criminals - are facilitating transactions for fraud gangs and high-risk gambling websites.
An unidentified entity was reported to have conducted transactions with criminal activity amounting to "at least hundreds of millions of dollars." These involved groups directly linked to or involved in large-scale drug trafficking, human trafficking, cybercrime and child sexual abuse material, as well as entities sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and wallets associated with the North Korean Lazarus Group. "More than ever, governments need to recognize the severity, scale and scope of this truly global threat and prioritize addressing the region's rapidly evolving criminal ecosystem," Masood Karimipour, UNODC regional representative, said in a statement.
The agency also recommended strengthening supervision of organized crime involvement in casinos, charter tours, online scams and other businesses associated with scams, and providing better training to law enforcement on online gambling operations and money laundering methods supported by advanced technologies, especially cryptocurrencies. The report noted that while not all scams in the region involve cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrencies have become a favored payment method for scammers due to the speed and convenience of cross-border transactions, the prevalence of misinformation, a lack of understanding of how cryptocurrencies work, and in some cases the failure of cross-border law enforcement cooperation, investigations, case acceptance and asset recovery mechanisms.
