President Trump this week issued an executive order creating a task force that will focus on market integrity and consumer fraud.
The Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud will include representatives from the Department of Justice, Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, Federal Trade Commission, Comptroller of the Currency as well as eight other cabinet secretaries.
The objective of the task force is to “provide guidance for the investigation and prosecution of cases involving fraud on the government, the financial markets, and consumers, including cyber-fraud and other fraud targeting the elderly, service members and veterans, and other members of the public; procurement and grant fraud; securities and commodities fraud, as well as other corporate fraud, with particular attention to fraud affecting the general public; digital currency fraud; money laundering, including the recovery of proceeds; health care fraud; tax fraud; and other financial crimes,” according to the order.
Most reports indicate that primary objective of the task force will be digital currency, including cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin.
“Fraud committed by companies and their employees has a devastating impact on American citizens in the financial markets, the healthcare sector and elsewhere,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at a press briefing, according to a published report.
Reports cited the creation of the task force as yet another way in which the federal government is seeking to overhaul the BCFP and limit its enforcement authority.