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Opinion1

This week’s podcast is about a global operation shield between the U.S., the FBI, and the DEA. In addition, countries worked together to solve these cases. It was a two-day arrest of hundreds of individuals who used encrypted devices in many different countries to successfully communicate to commit money laundering activities and drug trafficking (ACFE., 2021). Before I proceed to get deeper into the post about the case let me answer the question on civil charges.  Yes, there can be some civil charges here with the money laundering situation. However, it depends on the case, some cases may end up being criminal offenses instead of civil ones. The techniques used for getting information about specifics in the communication can be useful to them by gathering the evidence needed to bring forth charges (ACFE., 2021). 

I am pretty sure every year there are money laundering activities occurring must say I was so pleased to listen to this podcast because it shows how much can be done when countries and individuals decide to work together. It is however sad that third-world countries cannot benefit from this. Those countries have so much drug and human trafficking that seems to be a never-ending street. 

The two main law enforcement agencies, in this case, were the FBI and the Australian Federal Police. What really assisted them with solving and busting the criminals was the individual who was actually selling these devices. Of course, he could have heavy charges against him, but instead, I am sure due to him offering his services as an informant to work with the FBI to develop devices that can be sold to the criminals, his charges may be lessened (ACFE., 2021). 

When it comes to wiretapping, the FBI cannot install wiretaps at their own discretion. This technique is quite sensitive and has strict controls by Federal law. When used, it's only used for serious crimes and combatting terrorism. According to the FBI’s website, “ Tile 18, U.S. Code, Section 2516 contains the protocol requiring all law enforcement officers to establish probable cause that the wiretaps may provide evidence of a felony violation of federal law.” (Federal Bureau of Investigation., 2022a). This is something that must be approved by federal judges before proceeding to move forward, and the judge must take responsibility for monitoring how the wiretap is conducted. If these steps aren’t taken, the FBI can see serious charges against them (Federal Bureau of Investigation., 2022a). 

With this case of drug trafficking, the FBI is very dedicated to what they call an organized crime. In order to bust in on these criminal activities, the FBI works with the criminal and civil provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations ACT, agencies of the United States, and other worldwide agencies to target the criminals. In this case, I want to believe that the human who volunteered his services for creating the devices to be sold was approved by the federal judges. The FBI leveraged relationships domestically and abroad to combat the influence and reach these organized groups (Federal Bureau of Investigation., 2022b)., and the technique used in this case was a platform created for the FBI to receive on their end a copy of every single message. The FBI did the right thing in order to build a case. Finding the inside person and having them agree to work together in exchange for lesser or no charges could be the way to go because they end up being the connection to the actual criminals. Slowly gathering evidence and analyzing it to find the right time to make an arrest is the best way to handle crimes like these. When making an arrest it is best to catch them in an activity. Once the evidence has been complied then it is easier to get a warrant for their arrest (ACFE., 2021). 

Opinion 2

The podcast titled ‘Operation Trojan Shield: A Global Takedown’ is about an international sting operation to infiltrate an encrypted communications network. Operation Trojan Shield was a collaboration between the FBI, DEA, Swedish Police, Australian Federal Police and other global agencies. The law enforcement agencies created an encrypted communications network like other encrypted networks used by criminals that are offered on the black market, where criminals can communicate freely over messages and chats. The criminals can discuss through such networks exactly what they are doing, how they are doing it, where they are doing it and when they are going without the fear of law enforcement spying on that. The law enforcement agencies were able to sell over 12000 devices to more than 300 organization and more than 100 countries. They collected millions of messages, analyzed them, and finally busted the network. Over 800 people were arrested in over 15 countries with seizures of tons of cocaine, cannabis, synthetic drugs, firearms, luxury vehicles and million in worldwide and crypto currencies. There was a long list of criminal charges against the criminals. (Wilder, 2021)

Civil fraud is based on intentional misrepresentation of facts to obtain a financial gain, which is like criminal fraud. Civil fraud cases are pursued by the person that was defrauded. The defrauded person must prove that they suffered a damage as a result of the misrepresentation and that the misrepresentation was intentionally perpetrated by the accuser. As a result of the civil fraud case the court would order the restitution for the damage that was suffered by the victim. If there is no damage or the damage is not based on the misrepresentation, no relief will be granted. (Coolidge, 2022). In Operation Trojan Shield there were so much criminal activity observed that I’m sure that people were defrauded from these criminals, in order to obtain financial gain. 

To build a civil fraud case for the defrauded people, I would first try to identify which people were defrauded and who were the criminal fraudsters for each case. Second, I would identify which fraud scheme the fraudsters used and what damage the fraudster intentionally perpetrated to the defrauded person. Based on this information and other additional information I would plan and conduct the fraud examination. The third step is to investigate and collect evidence to bring the civil fraud case to court. The evidence needs to be obtained, collected, and documented by certain rules and within various laws, so that they are not dismissed in court. Besides the evidence described above, there might be also interrogation of the fraudster, other suspects and witnesses needed. Fourth, all evidence needs to be reviewed, summarized and the results consolidated and prepared for presentation in court. For criminal fraud cases the evidence is important, but it is also important to show the judge/court the damage that the defrauded had, for restitution claims (ACFE, 2022)