Crypto giant Circle is rebuffing efforts to help scam victims, law enforcement officials say.
According to a report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the issuer of the USDC stablecoin is allegedly declining to cooperate in assisting scam victims recover their funds. The ICIJ report says some unnamed law enforcement officials are raising alarms due to instances of Circle refusing to freeze or recover assets suspected to have been proceeds of scams.
In a county in southeastern Wisconsin, state prosecutors recently filed a criminal complaint against Circle, alleging that the stablecoin issuer refused to comply with a warrant ordering it to recover a scam victim’s stolen assets. Circle in response argued that the complaint should be dismissed while reportedly branding it meritless.
Milwaukee County’s police detective Scott Simons says he’s witnessed over a dozen instances around the US where Circle either refused a request from law enforcement to freeze victim funds or where a court order intended to force Circle to freeze victim funds failed because it was received too late.
Additionally, New York prosecutors have also claimed in a letter to Congress that Circle failed to honor court orders seeking to reimburse victims, according to the report. The letter says,
“Circle’s motive for not assisting law enforcement becomes crystal clear: it is financially preferable to only freeze cryptocurrency deemed to have been stolen, but not return the underlying asset to law enforcement or any fraud victim, because Circle can continue to collect the interest through investment of the underlying funds.”