UK government wants to make planned changes to the Economic Crime and Transparency bill so that authorities can quickly seize crypto assets linked to terrorist activities.
The UK Government wants law enforcement to seize crypto assets used to fund terrorism easily.
The Home Office Department, which is in charge of immigration and crime, wants to make changes to the U.K. Terrorism Act 2000 and the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 that are similar to planned changes to the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency bill. These changes will make it easier for authorities to seize crypto used in crimes.
In an email to CoinDesk, a spokesperson for the UK Government said, “This is to make sure that our law enforcement agencies, including counter-terrorism police, have all the powers they need to effectively seize, freeze, and forfeit crypto assets that could be or have been used for terrorist purposes.”
The Economic Crime and Transparency bill was introduced last month. It aims to stop criminals from using crypto to do things like avoiding sanctions like those put on Russia because of the war in Ukraine.
By putting these measures into the country’s anti-terrorism laws, the government will be able to freeze assets in situations like the arrest of Hisham Chaudhary, a U.K. citizen who was found guilty of using bitcoin to help fund the Islamic State.
On Thursday’s second reading of the economic crime bill, Suella Braverman, secretary of state for the Home Department, said, “Crypto assets are being used more and more for bad and terrorist purposes. We plan to crack down on this, and we’ll be putting forward a government amendment to mirror the changes in part four of this bill into counterterrorism legislation.”
The UK Government has introduced new bills to bring more crypto businesses to the country and crack down on crypto being used for illegal things. The Financial Services and Markets bill, which will give regulators in the country more power to regulate crypto, is currently being talked about in Parliament. On Wednesday, the upper house of Parliament passed the Electronic Trade Bill, which could allow trade documents to be stored on the blockchain.
