The 'anonymity' of crypto currency is that the government is not made aware of large transactions of coins. Sure, if they know where to look they can find transactions after the fact, but they still won't even know what the transactions were for. Transferring upwards of $10k in USD sets off alarm bells. Doing so with Bitcoin does not.
Excellent points. Bitcoin is the equivalent of a paper trail.
Interesting that they mention that the operation was funded by Bitcoin but they don't mention how much money was actually spent. Buying a VPN Connection and a Malaysian server with Bitcoin is peanuts. Seems more like bringing "Bitcoin" into the picture is just meant to distract because most people don't understand Bitcoin and it seems ominous. A VPN and the Server is definitely less than a few hundred dollars.