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My name is Larry Nielsen. I am an active law enforcement Detective in South Florida. I have over 16 years of law enforcement experience and over 6 years as a Financial Crimes Detective. I am a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and a Cryptocurrency Tracing Certified Examiner (CTCE certified by CipherTrace).
I create and provide investigative training to law enforcement reference to Financial Crimes Investigations with a focus on Cryptocurrency related investigations through my company, Fintech Focus Training and Consulting out of Florida.
There are over 200 Bitcoin ATMs (BTM) showing in Utah with the majority in and around Salt Lake City and the rest spread throughout the state with the next largest concentration in St. George. From my experience, BTMs are a preferred tool for criminals to conduct transactions, launder money, and have their victim’s conduct transactions as well. The surrounding states have plenty as well; Las Vegas, NV has 307 alone and another 38 in Reno. There are 22 in Grand Junction, CO (close to Utah) and another 466 in Denver. They are even in Farmington, NM (close to Utah and Colorado).
With the rise in popularity of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and NFTs also comes the increase in related crimes and the urgent need to know how to investigate them. The objective of this 2-day course is to provide you with important information and practical, usable investigative techniques that you can benefit from daily. You will be empowered with the skills and knowledge to properly begin cryptocurrency related investigations and move them forward with confidence. This course is essential for all law enforcement investigators and analysts.
Being able to use open-source blockchain analytics tools to trace stolen or criminally linked cryptocurrency/NFT transactions is a MUST HAVE skill for every investigator/analyst today. This 1-day participation-based workshop will teach this skill through practical application. Next, we will go beyond tracing and do what you may think cannot be done; learn how to use free and open-source tools to identify and make contact with a non-custodial wallet owner then discuss options.
In this workshop attendees will open-source trace cryptocurrency and stolen NFTs.
Cryptocurrency cases are already landing on Detective’s desks all over the U.S. and will continue to increase in volume. A lot of the dollar amounts associated with these cases are too small for the Federal Agencies to pick up. It’s important that they understand how to begin these investigations and how to move them forward or know when they can’t go forward any further. Either way, however, being able to provide the victim with a solid explanation of why the investigation is progressing or not. For too long crypto cases were being filed in the unsolvable file solely because of the crypto component.
Reports to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in Q1 of 2022 alone reference to losses where cryptocurrency was the method of payment total more than $329,000,000. These losses reported are reference to scams such as Romance Scams, Investment Scams, Imposter Scams, Pig Butchering, and others. Victims across the US in our local areas of responsibility are falling for these scams. They are losing anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to hundreds of thousands. Those are cases that local law enforcement needs to know how to begin and move forward because, as I mentioned, the dollar amounts are too small for Federal agencies to touch in most cases. If local law enforcement can’t at least begin them and move them forward, where does that leave the victims?
I have experience investigating these cases, working with contacts at BTM companies and Centralized Crypto Exchanges like Coinbase, Gemini, Crypto.com, and Binance.com as well as seizing scammed crypto from suspect accounts at centralized cryptocurrency exchanges. I will share success stories as well as stories of times that I have tried and failed and explain why. It’s all important to know.
Even if a Detective has zero crypto experience prior to attending this course, they will leave this course with a solid foundation for starting crypto investigations and moving them forward with confidence. Being a Detective myself, I created this course for any investigator who wants to learn how to investigate these cases. The course is designed to go over the type of white-collar crypto crime cases that Detectives are most likely seeing come across their desk or will be seeing if they aren’t yet. It covers the crypto fundamentals and will also go into tracing crypto and Non-Fungible Token (NFT) transactions using free and open-source tools, investigative techniques, realities of these cases, wording for subpoenas and seizure warrants, and more. It’s the only course that I know of designed for law enforcement by law enforcement teaching not only the crypto aspect but integrating it into boots-on-the-ground local law enforcement investigations.
This course was developed outside of my employment as a Detective but using my experience there and my experience in business assisting victims of cryptocurrency crimes to locate their stolen cryptocurrency and NFTs.
I have the intention with this course of adding value to any investigators toolbox who attends and putting attendees in a position to continue to learn and grow in their investigative career paths. I believe even people in positions of leadership at agencies across the country should be learning these skills, so they are aware of what their troops are dealing with and the issues involving cryptocurrency affecting their cities.
Here are some actual course evaluation comments from Detectives who have attended, and there are more listed on my website:
“Great class! Knew a bit (no pun intended) about crypto but after this class I know a lot more. What I learned in this class makes working a crypto crime case less intimidating. Thank you!”
“Excellent class. Learned a lot of new useful investigative tools. Calling one of my victims to meet with me tomorrow to take the case further. Great class. I will highly recommend this class.”
“Thoroughly enjoyed the class. Left me with a working knowledge of crypto currency and provided some skills needed to start investigations. Thank you so much for providing this training.”
“Even though I have zero previous experience on the topic, I feel more confident on the knowledge I learned. Excellent class and breaking it down so I could understand.”
“I’m much more confident in tracing cryptocurrency than I was before the class and I have gone to several classes.”
“Have taken several crypto classes, and I love this one the most. The hands-on approach is very helpful to my learning style. I like how you broke it down and made it more easily understandable.”
