Human traffickers, like all criminals, rely on the international financial system to facilitate their crimes and to disguise proceeds from their illegal activities. Traffickers open bank accounts to deposit and launder...more
Faced with the novel question of whether an individual has a Fourth Amendment privacy interest in the records of their Bitcoin transactions, the Fifth Circuit found that Bitcoin data is akin to bank records and not subject to...more
Strikeout for Bitcoin ETF - Another ETF bites the dust. On February 26th the SEC rejected the application of NYSE Acre for the approval of an exchange traded fund sponsored by the New York firm of Wilshire Phoenix to...more
Western Express Bancshares (WEB) alleged that Green Dot’s sale of debit cards infringed WEB’s patent, which was directed to a method of transferring money through a bank card where (1) the card was linked to a bank account,...more
On May 9, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the US Department of the Treasury (FinCEN) issued guidance relating to how its regulations apply to certain businesses that transact in "convertible virtual currencies"...more
On June 12, 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the internationally coordinated arrests of 74 individuals involved in a series of multimillion-dollar business email compromise schemes ("BEC"). Although these...more
MoneyGram International Inc. and Ant Financial Services Group recently announced the termination of their agreement providing for the acquisition of Texas-based money transfer company MoneyGram by China-based Ant Financial...more
As widely reported, the Spanish police raided last year the Madrid offices of the Chinese state-run Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (“ICBC”), the world’s biggest bank by assets. In the nearly 18 months following that...more
A legal feud is underway between the world’s biggest hedge fund administrator and a former client over an email scam that resulted in hackers stealing millions in client funds. And not surprisingly, the time-honored...more
In an effort to combat an increasing number of fraudulent transfers carried out using its network, SWIFT, the international bank transfer network, announced this month that it is adding new tools and controls designed to...more
Earlier this year, in January 2017, Western Union entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the Justice Department and the FTC, and agreed to pay $586 in forfeiture to settle anti-money laundering and consumer fraud...more
On March 10, Italy’s data protection authority, Il Garante per la protezione dei dati personali (the “Garante”), announced that it had ordered fines totaling more than €11 million on five companies operating in the money...more
Welcome to the Hogan Lovells Global Payments Newsletter. In this monthly publication we provide an overview of the most recent payments, regulatory and market developments from major jurisdictions around the world as well as...more
Last week, Circle announced major changes to its application and platform. While many focused on Circle’s decision to cut its users’ ability to buy and sell Bitcoin, the breaking news may have been its decision to create a...more
PayPal agreed to pay $175,000 and strengthen its privacy and security disclosures in a settlement agreement reached with the Texas Attorney General’s office (the “AG’s office”). The AG’s office claimed that PayPal failed to...more
In March, we reported on the Business E-mail Compromise (BEC) scam where criminals target employees responsible for wiring company money, and trick them into wiring money under false pretenses to fraudulent accounts...more
On August 20, 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) and the New York superintendent of financial services jointly sued Pension Funding, LLC; Pension Income, LLC; and individuals Steven Covey, Edwin Lichtig,...more
When Is Bitcoin “Money” Versus a “Security”? In motions involving a high-profile criminal prosecution with ties to Silk Road and a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement action, two federal courts have clarified...more
On August 19, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a ruling in the case of Robert Faiella, holding that bitcoins are “money,” citing the plain meaning of the term in The...more