Welcome to Lyna Toudert who has joined the EconCrime Lab. She will examine fraud sentences in the Canadian criminal courts and assess whether the social status of the accused influences the severity of their sentencing.

Two preprints, completed by lab members, have been published on arxiv: Mapping the DeFi Crime Landscape: An Evidence-based Picture and Conti Inc.: Understanding the Internal Discussions of a large Ransomware-as-a-Service Operator with Machine Learning

Catherine Gaumond joins the lab! For her masters thesis, she will explore how money laundering charges are prosecuted, adjudicated, and penalized within the Quebec judicial process.

Guy Melancon, a computer scientist from the University of Bordeaux, is joining the lab this year to work on detecting community brokers in illicit, profit-driven networks!

Estelle Ruellan is presenting at the European Society of Criminology (ESC) conference in Florence this week her research on the Conti ransomware group.

Jade and Masarah just presented their research: Incorporating the Illicit: Assessing the Market Supply of Shelf Companies at the White-collar and organisational crime: New ideas, directions and perspectives in Manchester.

A new member, Stefan, has joined the EconCrime Lab! Go see his profile.

Masarah Paquet-Clouston participated in an invite-only workshop at the pretigious Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University last Monday to discuss blockchain and privacy issues.

Masarah Paquet-Clouston presented the research she is developing with Catherine Carpentier-Desjardins on DeFi and crime at the Digital Currency Initiative of the MIT Media Lab.

Leanne Vincendon received a scholarship from the School of Criminology to finish her master thesis over the summer. Congratulations Leanne!

Mylène Mailhot published an academic poster at Acfas 2023 on tax evasion schemes in Canada and Quebec. Her poster, titled "L’analyse procédurale de stratagèmes d’évasion fiscale au Canada et au Québec : dons rentables et économies d’impôt!" displays common tax evasion schemes and is available online.

Our study, An Exploration on Cryptocurrency Corporations’ Fiscal Opportunities, has been published in the Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2023 and Thomas Charest successfully presented at results at the Cryptoassets Analytics Workshop.

Gabriel Arvisais successfully finished his masters thesis last month! He surveyed over 100 compliance officers to gain valuable insights into the influence of cryptocurrencies on their work in detecting suspicious money laundering patterns. Gabriel's work shows that compliance officers still feel unequipped when dealing with crypto transactions and the presence of crypto increases their suspicion.

Thomas Charest will be presenting at the 2nd international workshop on Cryptoasset Analytics in Austin, Texas. His study explores global tax evasion opportunities for decentralized finance enterprises.

Masarah Paquet-Clouston presented the results of her research on the motivations and challenges of affiliates involved in cybercrime, conducted with Sebastian Garcia, at the Computer Laboratory Security Group meeting presentations at the University of Cambridge.

Gabriel Arvisais and Masarah Paquet-Clouston went to Vancouver last week to participate in the 25th Annual Vancouver International Privacy & Security Summit (VIPSS). Gabriel participated in a workshop on cryptocurrencies and Masarah was a panelist and discussed the use cryptocurrencies in money laundering schemes.

Two lab members will be presenting at the Forum Étudiant d'Échange et d'Information en Cybercriminologie on January 27th, 2023!

Léanne Vincendon will present her research on how freelancers may drift into cybercrime.

Gabriel Arvisais will present the results of his master thesis: the impact of the use of cryptocurrencies on the detection of suspicious patterns in compliance activities.

A new study from a team member has just been published in the scientific journal: Trends in Organized Crime. The study, named “On the Motivations and Challenges of Affiliates involved in Cybercrime” shows how individuals at the bottom of the supply chain of cybercrime struggle to achieve their tasks and are driven by dreams of money that never materialize.

Check it out on: Springer or crimrxiv.

Congratulation to Estelle Ruellan who has won the High Potential Cybertalent Trophy from l’École de cybersécurité. The award was announced during the Forum International de la Cybersécurité at Palais des Congrès in downtown Montreal.