Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has claimed that he has been subjected to what he considers to be borderline harassment by the Criminal Investigation (CI) Unit of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the United States. The IRS has been seeking his assistance in blockchain investigations. ZachXBT stated in a post on March 6 that although he is willing to help victims and support law enforcement by providing necessary information, he believes that the US law enforcement agency has overstepped his “personal boundaries” in their attempts to obtain his help in solving blockchain crimes.
According to ZachXBT, the CI Unit has resorted to various intrusive methods to contact him, including showing up in person at his previous addresses, reaching out to his personal email addresses using private data, and sending mail even though he has public contact information readily available.
ZachXBT shared several images, one of which was an email from a special agent of the IRS-CI requesting his assistance and praising him for his impressive work in blockchain tracing. The email acknowledged the agent’s limited knowledge in the blockchain industry and expressed admiration for ZachXBT’s skills.
ZachXBT considers the multiple methods of contact to be a clear disregard for professionalism.
This situation has arisen after ZachXBT declined to assist holders of the SIMPLE memecoin, which was created on the Base blockchain but was abruptly shut down by its developers on April 4. He explained that he does not enjoy spending a significant amount of time helping individuals who willingly choose to invest in meme coins that have no substance, rather than focusing on actual victims.
Meanwhile, the IRS has been forging partnerships with well-known individuals and companies in the field of blockchain tracing for some time. In May 2023, IRS-CI Chief Jim Lee stated that the agency’s collaboration with blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has been extremely valuable. Lee emphasized that without the infrastructure and tools provided by these partnerships, the unit’s efforts to investigate cryptocurrency-related crimes would be nearly impossible. The IRS-CI estimated that it had seized approximately $10 billion worth of cryptocurrency since it began investigating crimes involving digital assets.
US law enforcement accused of ‘borderline harassing’ ZachXBT, according to his claims