I was a federal prosecutor for a decade, and I focused on complex cyber and crypto cases. I will be the first to tell you that no matter how sophisticated investigators are, sometimes they get it wrong. Here is what to do if you are falsely accused of participating in a crypto scam.

Linked Is Not the Same as Guilty

You open your exchange app and your account is frozen. Or a letter arrives from a federal agency asking about a wallet you control. Or a civil complaint names you as a recipient of stolen funds. In each case, the message is the same: someone looked at the blockchain and drew a line from a crypto scam to you.

That line may be wrong. Blockchain records are permanent and public, but the conclusions people draw from them are not….