A handful of cryptocurrency exchanges in Singapore are working with a London-based financial crime investigator in a case involving stolen digital assets.
London-based Intelligent Sanctuary (iSanctuary) is working with more than five unnamed crypto exchanges in Singapore, according to a «Straits Times» report citing founder and CEO Jonathan Benton.
The case involves an estimated $3 million in stolen digital assets as well as the theft of a private key, spanning across Singapore and European countries including Spain, Ireland, Britain and more.
iSanctuary tracked down the assets within 24 hours of the incident before applying for an injunction in the Singapore High Court for a worldwide freezing order in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT).
NFT for Freezing Assets
According to Benton, this unique NFT cuts down the duration to freeze assets. In other cases, traditional methods may fail altogether because there are crypto wallets with anonymous owners while others simply use false addresses.
«This is a game changer; it can happen in hours if needed. We can serve on wallets and start to police the blockchain, identify those holding illicit assets, serve civil or criminal orders, even red flags,» said Benton, who was head of Britain’s international corruption unit and criminal finance at the Metropolitan Police Service.
«In conventional banking, this type of ‘flagging’ and monitoring happens all the time.»
