Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has alleged that he's been subject to what he perceives as borderline harassment by the Criminal Investigation (CI) Unit of the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as they solicit his assistance in blockchain investigations.

As per a March 6 post on X, ZachXBT detailed his willingness to aid victims and cooperate with law enforcement by providing necessary information. However, he feels that the U.S. law enforcement agency has overstepped his "personal boundaries" in their pursuit of his assistance in addressing blockchain-related crimes.

"They have shown up in real life to old addresses, contacted personal emails using private data, and have sent mail when I have public contact methods readily available," he asserted.

Among the various screenshots shared by ZachXBT was an email from an IRS-CI special agent seeking his help while commending him for his "impressive work" in blockchain tracing. The email acknowledged the agent's limited expertise in the blockchain industry:

"I've been an IRS-CI special agent for a while, but I'm pretty new to the crypto/cyber arena, and I was hoping you could give me a sense of what I should be looking at if I wanted to make the biggest impact."

ZachXBT claims that the multiple forms of contact represent a "blatant disregard for any professionalism."

This development follows ZachXBT's refusal to aid holders of the Complex (SIMPLE) memecoin, minted on the Base blockchain, after its developers abruptly ceased the project on April 4. He expressed his aversion to "spending long periods helping people who willingly choose to gamble on vaporware meme coins vs. actual victims."

Meanwhile, the IRS has been strengthening its partnerships with prominent individuals and companies within the blockchain tracing sector for some time. In May 2023, Cointelegraph reported IRS-CI Chief Jim Lee's assertion that its collaboration with blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has proven invaluable.

Lee explained that the unit's efforts to investigate crypto-related crimes would be nearly "impossible" without the infrastructure and tools now at its disposal. At that time, the IRS-CI estimated that it had seized $10 billion worth of cryptocurrency since initiating investigations into various crimes involving digital assets.