Computer Crime Money Laundering 4th 12 24

Abstract

Computer Crime: Money Laundering Conspiracy Computer Crime: Money Laundering Conspiracy Summary of the Article After laundering and stealing over $230 million in cryptocurrency from a victim in Washington D.C. the FBI arrested Lam and Serrano as the main perpetrators of this evil act on the 19th day of September 2024.Their arrest and indictment were openly announced by the U.S. Attorney Mathew M. Graves, FBI Acting Special Agent in charge David Geist as well as the Executive Special Agent in charge of Kareem A. Lam is a 20 years citizen from Singapore going by the online monikers as Anne Hathaway and $$$ while Serrano a 21 year old from Los Angeles used VersaceGod and @SkidStar. These two defendants carried out their heinous crime by fraudulently accessing their targets cryptocurrency accounts and transferring their savings to their control. In order to mask their true identities, the two laundered the proceeds by moving funds through a different mixers as well as exchanges through peel chains, pass-through wallets and virtual private networks. Unfortunately, these two criminals had no much serious projects or missions directed to these funds they stole from their target. On the contrary, they used these stolen funds to fund their international travels, buy luxury item like watches, automobiles, designer handbags, jewelries as well as live in high-end rentals in Los Angeles and Miami. The recent instance of their indictment encounters was 18th August 2024 when the two communicated with a victim and fraudulently obtained over 4100 Bitcoin worth over $230 at once. Why the Crime Happened Based on Routine Activity Theory Defining Routine Activity Theory There are many theories that can help explain why cybercrimes happen and Routine Activity Theory is among the most effective (Leukfeldt and Yar, 2016). It is therefore important to understand what Routine Activity Theory is all about. According to Luo et al. (2020), RAT is defined as a criminology theory that was developed by Lawrence Cohen and Marcus in the late 70s. Based on these two great theorists, crime happens when three major elements converge in time and space. These elements include a motivated offender, a suitable target and the absence of capable guardianship (Puente and Hernández, 2022). Basically, any crime may happen in an environment where there is someone wiling and capable of committing it, there is also the availability of an object or an individual seeming vulnerable to the offender as well as when such environs lack physical or social safeguards to protect the target from victimization. Such an environment is well reflected in our case scenario favoring Lam and Serrano’s act of money laundering from their target victim. Why Crime Happened Presence of Motivated Offenders Routine Activity Theory does not just focus on why a person committed the crime but on the contrary, it delves deeper into the circumstances that make crimes happen more likely (Lee and Choi, 2022). In Lam and Serrano money laundering case, it is open that one can be able to analyze the origin and triggers of their act through close consideration of the three major elements that determines the likelihood of crime occurrence according to Routine Activity Theory. While analyzing motivated offenders element, it is open that Lam and Serrano were likely motivated by the significant financial gain that was associated with the laundering and cryptocurrency theft. It is not like these offenders were doing these offenses without proper plan implying that they took term searching for anything to motivate them in conning their targets. In this regard, they often used aliases as well as sophisticated laundering strategies which is a clear demonstration of their premeditation and knowledge of how to exploit vulnerabilities when it came to cryptocurrency systems. Basically, the success of such techniques served as great motivators of their continued money laundering acts until their arrest. Unfortunately, by the time of their arrest, they had seriously taken advantage of their motivators leading their victims to huge losses. Suitable Targets While reflecting on suitable target element, it is open that this is another motivator of crime happening as the offender is ready to take advantage of the vulnerability of the target as soon as such weakness becomes...