“Frosties” Promoters Charged in NFT Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme

I thought this part about closely tracking cryptocurrency transactions was interesting:

"IRS-CI Special Agent-in-Charge Thomas Fattorusso said: “NFTs represent a new era for financial investments, but the same rules apply to an investment in an NFT or a real estate development. You can’t solicit funds for a business opportunity, abandon that business and abscond with money investors provided you. Our team here at IRS-CI and our partners at HSI closely track cryptocurrency transactions in an effort to uncover alleged schemes like this one.”"

So I looked a little more into this scenario and found this additional info[0] which although not incredibly sophisticated, left me feeling somewhat impressed with the IRS:

"...investigators matched Nguyen and Llacuna’s Discord account data (including Nguyen’s IP address and Llacuna’s email address and phone number) with corresponding accounts on the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange. The Coinbase accounts were linked with a Citibank credit card and government ID that let law enforcement track the pair down. Investigators also traced a series of transfers through which Nguyen and Llacuna allegedly tried to obscure where they were sending the Frosties funds, leading to the money laundering accusations."

[0]https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/24/22995107/us-arrest-charge...