“Digital assets may pose significant illicit finance risks, including money laundering, cybercrime and ransomware, narcotics and human trafficking, and terrorism and proliferation financing.”
Crypto companies play a critical role in the fight against human trafficking. Criminals use online marketplaces or “dark web” sites and pseudo anonymous blockchain transactions, enhanced with privacy tools like mixers and tumblers, to traffic victims and evade law enforcement.
Traditional methods to investigate suspected illicit activity on the blockchain can be ineffective, not providing the full picture of crypto-related crime. Despite the perceived anonymity of cryptocurrency and blockchain, criminals must convert portions of their illicit funds into fiat. To catch more crypto-related crime, crypto companies need a view into both fiat and blockchain.
The importance for crypto companies to relay valuable information to law enforcement has never been higher — actionable intelligence can be the difference in whether a trafficker is caught or can continue their nefarious behavior.
Crypto-Related Crime is on the Rise
In a recent Government Accountability Report, Polaris reported that virtual currency was the second-most accepted payment on 40 online sex trafficking platforms. The GAO also found that from 2017-2020, the number of SARs referencing cryptocurrency quadrupled, increasing from 10,377 to 42,782.
Crypto companies have a responsibility to ensure potentially suspicious activity is reported to the proper authorities. Companies need anti-financial crime solutions that provide:
- Visibility across blockchain and fiat.
- Solutions for frictionless SAR/STR filing.
- Automated solutions that streamline regulatory requirements, while reducing false positives and managing risk.
Empowering Investigators to Fight Human Trafficking
Verafin can help your company identify potential traffickers, victims, front companies, and human smuggling payments with our unique solution:
- All-In-One Anti-Financial Crime Platform:
For effective investigations into human trafficking, your company needs a full view across blockchain and fiat. Verafin’s all-in-one solution gives you the full picture of crypto-related crime.
- Centralized Case Management for Financial Crime:
Verafin’s investigative tools and integrated case management solution help streamline investigations by organizing vast amounts data, allowing the ability to complete investigations and file automated SARs/STRs with ease. - Holistic View of Activity with Behavioral Analytics:
Verafin analyzes customer profile, demographic data, and transactional activity for indicators of potential human trafficking. Visual storytelling tools such as geographic maps, balance charts, link analysis and relationship graphs maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of investigations, offering all the information you need — all in one place.
Verafin’s human trafficking analytical agents significantly reduce false positive alerts by analyzing a wide range of data to create a more accurate picture of true risk, with exceptional results. Verafin’s analytical technology cross-references data from millions of ads on known online adult classified and escort websites. Verafin analyzes retrieved email addresses and phone numbers and alerts you to matches within your customer base.
Alert-to-Case Ratio
1 in 4
Alert-to-SAR Ratio
1 in 7
With continuous improvement of well-defined human trafficking typologies, leveraging consortium-based data to identify high-risk activity and information sharing to help investigators uncover important connections that can exist across multiple institutions, Verafin empowers financial crime investigators to detect potential human trafficking activity and provide actionable intelligence to law enforcement.
To learn more about how Verafin can help your crypto company fight this complex and heinous crime, download our Human Trafficking Infographic.
Verafin, a Nasdaq company, is the industry leader in Financial Crime Management providing a cloud-based platform for AML, Fraud Detection and investigative Case Management. An all-in-one crypto compliance offering, Verafin supports complex investigations, enables robust transaction monitoring and improves efficiency of compliance processes. Its multi-chain visual investigation tools help streamline case investigations and trace the flow of funds across both cryptocurrency and fiat networks.