The Federal Bureau of Investigation is growing concerned that Wall Street traders are turning to encrypted apps to hide illicit communications from internal compliance programmes and regulators.
Encryption is “a growing problem overall,” John Casale, an assistant special agent in charge of complex financial crimes in the Manhattan field office told the FT. “New technology comes out and you know it’s going to be applied and it could be applied in a way to engage in fraud, money laundering, and insider trading.”
The first indication that applications, such as WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram that allow for secure end-to-end communications, are being used by white collar offenders inside big banks came to light late Wednesday in a largely unnoticed insider trading case.