Europe’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) watchdog, MONEYVAL, has listed monitoring the crypto sector along with “gatekeeper” professionals, such as lawyers and accountants, as priorities in European nations' push to combat money laundering. In a media release based on the findings of its annual report, MONEYVAL called upon European jurisdictions to assess compliance with international standards and implement stricter regulatory policies to combat money laundering facilitated by crypto assets. Elżbieta Frankow-Jaśkiewicz, chief of MONEVYAL, cited the Pandora Papers as an example of how professionals serving as "gatekeepers" could aid the rich and corrupt to launder their …

The United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, has said it intends to pursue cease and desist proceedings against cryptocurrency custody bank Anchorage Digital for violating certain Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements. In a Thursday announcement, the OCC said it issued a consent order against Anchorage Digital based on its “failure to adopt and implement a compliance program” in accordance with the required Bank Secrecy Act, or BSA, and AML standards. The government bureau said such actions placed Anchorage Digital in violation of its operating agreement with the OCC, established in January 2021. “The OCC holds all …

Australian financial compliance enforcement agency AUSTRAC has released two new guides to help entities spot when customers are using crypto for illicit means or when they are being forced to pay the creators of ransomware. But, it warned that debanking customers merely on suspicion of such activity was a harmful practice with serious negative effects. In an announcement posted earlier today, AUSTRAC noted that the growing acceptance, value and adoption of crypto and blockchain technology has been accompanied by an increase in cybercrime. “Cyber-enabled crime is an increasing threat to Australians. According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), 500 …

Last week, the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) voted in favor of a regulatory update that could compromise the exchange platforms’ ability to deal with noncustodial crypto wallets. Should the regulatory project make it to the legislation phase in the upcoming months, it would place severe disclosure requirements on transactions between noncustodial wallets and crypto exchanges in the European Union — a process whose signs are visible in other parts of the globe as well. What happened On Thursday, March 31, ECON and LIBE members …

United Kingdom's national crime agency (NCA) seeks to regulate the crypto coin mixers under the country's laws against money laundering. Coin mixing tools are popular in the decentralized world to maintain the privacy of transactions. These tools often mix several transactions to obscure the origin of a particular transaction. Then the recipient receives the transactions from a mixing "black box" that comprises hundreds of transactions from various wallets. While privacy-focused, these tools often face regulators' ire as it is also a known way for hackers and criminals to wash their funds. Gary Cathcart, the NCA's head of financial investigation, claimed …

According to recent media reports, six European countries, led by Germany, are working on launching an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) body that will include the cryptocurrency market in its purview. Details remain scarce, but it is known that the initiative involves Germany, Spain, Austria, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The group is working on “the remit and design” of a new international AML watchdog force that will have a particular emphasis on crypto, and the European Commission — the key executive institution of the European Union — will be the primary platform for the discussion. How will the move affect the …

As public understanding of how digital assets work becomes more nuanced along with the mainstreaming of crypto, the language of Bitcoin’s (BTC) “anonymity” gradually becomes a thing of the past. High-profile law enforcement operations such as the one that recently led to the U.S. government seizing some $3.6 billion worth of crypto are particularly instrumental in driving home the idea that assets whose transaction history is recorded on an open, distributed ledger are better described as “pseudonymous,” and that such a design is not particularly favorable for those wishing to get away with stolen funds. No matter how hard criminals …

The founders of crypto exchange BitMEX have pled guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act after a lengthy litigation process with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). American Arthur Hayes and British Hong Konger Benjamin Delo admitted to “willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an anti-money laundering (AML) program” at their crypto derivatives and futures exchange, BitMEX. BitMEX is a Seychelles-based crypto trading platform that offers crypto futures, derivatives, and margin trading up to 100x. The exchange once offered its services without any know-your-customer (KYC) or AML verification procedures to Americans. The DOJ’s Feb. 24 announcement on the case …

The husband-wife duo accused in the infamous $3.6 billion Bitcoin (BTC) money laundering case had quite a contrasting valentine. A federal judge upheld the decision of a suspended release for wife Heather Morgan while husband Ilya Lichtenstein has been sent to pre-trial detention. Beryl A. Howell, the chief judge at the Federal District Court in Columbia, ruled that Lichtenstein has the motivation and resources to flee and thus must be kept under detention. While Morgan managed to fulfill the criteria for a suspended release on a bond of $3 million. The lawyer representing the couple denied any motivation for fleeing …

On Feb. 6, the United States Department of the Treasury released a report under the headline “Study of the facilitation of money laundering and terror finance through the trade in works of art.” In fact, only a tiny fraction of the 40-page document is dedicated to the “Emerging Digital Art Market,” by which the department understands the market for nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. Still, even a brief mention of the emerging NFT space in this context can have major implications for the tone of the nascent regulatory debate with regard to the asset class. What the report said The overall …

Streaming and production giant Netflix will soon produce a documentary series on the infamous Bitfinex hack — one of the biggest financial crimes from 2016 stealing 119,756 Bitcoin (BTC) — worth $72 million at the time. The Netflix documentary will be centered around a New York-based couple and their link to laundering nearly 120,000 BTC tied to the crime. According to Netflix, the documentary will be directed by American filmmaker Chris Smith with Nick Bilton as the co-executive producer. The announcement read: “Netflix has ordered a documentary series about a married couple’s alleged scheme to launder billions of dollars worth …

The U.S. Department of the Treasury released a study on the high-value art market, highlighting the potential in the nonfungible tokens (NFT) space to conduct illicit money laundering or terror financing operations. The treasury’s “Study of the facilitation of money laundering and terror finance through the trade in works of art” suggested that the increasing use of art as an investment or financial asset could make the high-value art trades vulnerable to money laundering: “The emerging online art market may present new risks, depending on the structure and incentives of certain activity in this sector of the market (i.e., the …