FBI Virtual Asset Pioneer Erin Montgomery Joins TRM Labs
TRM Labs, the leader in blockchain intelligence, announced that Erin Montgomery, one of the FBI's foremost experts in virtual asset intelligence, has joined to lead the North American law enforcement team for TRM Global Investigation..
Montgomery brings more than 17-years of federal service to TRM, most recently serving as a Supervisory Intelligence Analyst at the FBI's Virtual Assets Unit, where she managed an intelligence team covering international money laundering with a nexus to virtual assets. Working hand in hand with operational counterparts, her team enhanced the FBI's understanding of how adversaries exploit virtual assets, informed strategic prioritization, and provided expert analytical support on the Bureau's most complex cases.
A pioneer in the field, Montgomery helped shape some of the earliest intelligence analysis on Bitcoin, helping lay the groundwork for how US law enforcement would come to understand and combat cryptocurrency-related crime. She also played a central role in developing the foundation of the FBI's comprehensive virtual asset training program, and over the course of her career provided blockchain analysis expertise and search and seizure guidance that shaped investigative practice across law enforcement partners around the world.
Montgomery's casework includes some of the most high-profile crypto investigations in history. She was instrumental in solving investigations, including the AlphaBay darknet marketplace takedown — one of the largest darknet marketplaces ever taken down — an operation that set a new standard for law enforcement action against illicit crypto infrastructure.
"The ripple effect of Erin's work is hard to overstate. The training programs she built, the frameworks she developed, the cases she supported — they shaped how an entire generation of agents and analysts approach crypto crime. We're thrilled to have her at TRM, where that expertise will continue to multiply across law enforcement agencies across North America," said Chris Janczewski, Head of Global Investigations, TRM Labs
Montgomery began her FBI career in 2008 in the Cyber Division, where she first worked on illicit actor exploitation of virtual worlds and online gaming before turning her focus to the criminal underground economy and, ultimately, to virtual assets, a specialization she would deepen across her entire career.
In 2016, she transferred to the Criminal Investigative Division to concentrate on money laundering with a virtual asset nexus, before helping create the FBI's Virtual Assets Unit, where she led an embedded intelligence team through her final years of federal service.
"I've spent my career at the intersection of intelligence and crypto crime — watching this threat evolve from the earliest days of Bitcoin to the sophisticated laundering networks we see today," said Montgomery. "TRM has built the platform and the team that law enforcement relies on to stay ahead of those threats. I'm excited to join that mission and help agencies across North America do their most impactful work."
Montgomery holds a bachelor's degree in History from Texas A&M University. She joins a growing team of former law enforcement and national security professionals at TRM Labs working to detect, investigate, and prevent illicit activity involving digital assets.
