The Justice Insiders Podcast - The Ever-Expanding Net: Corporate Compliance in an Era of Increasing Trade Sanctions and Restrictions
Episode 328 -- Sanctions Enforcement Risks and Redlines
Corruption, Crime and Compliance: Third-Party Risks and Sanctions Compliance
Episode 324 -- Third-Party Risks and Sanctions Compliance
Will Resiliency Carry the Digital Asset Sector Through 2024: Federal Legislative Developments and OFAC Consent Orders — The Crypto Exchange Podcast
Corruption, Crime & Compliance: Deep Dive into SCG Plastics’ $20 Million Settlement with OFAC to Resolve Violations of Iran Sanctions Program
Episode 319 -- Deep Dive into SCG Plastics' $20 Million Settlement with OFAC for Violations of the Iran Sanctions Program
Wiley's 10 Key Trade Developments: Evolution of Export Controls
Wiley’s Top 10 Trade Developments: Heightened Sanctions and Export Control Enforcement
Corruption, Crime and Compliance: Trade Compliance Trends and Expectations with Gabrielle Griffith
Episode 308 -- Gabrielle Griffith, Director BPE Global, on Trade Compliance
Corruption, Crime and Compliance: DOJ and OFAC Sanctions Enforcement Review for 2023
Episode 307 -- Sanctions Enforcement Review and Predictions for 2024
Episode 302 -- Matt Stankiewicz on DOJ's Massive Criminal Settlement with Cryptocurrency Exchange Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao
Episode 294 -- Catch Up on OFAC Enforcement: 3M and Emigrant Bank
Episode 289 -- Justice, Commerce and Treasury Issue Joint Notice on Voluntary Disclosure
Evaluating Government Sanctions in the Payments Industry - Payments Pros: The Payments Law Podcast
FedNow Is Here! - Payments Pros: The Payments Law Podcast
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: A Look at the Treasury Department’s April 2023 Report on Decentralized Finance or “DeFi”
Corruption, Crime, & Compliance - Cryptocurrency and Sanctions Compliance with Matt Stankiewicz
On June 20, 2024, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued a supplemental advisory to alert U.S. financial institutions about emerging trends in the illicit fentanyl supply chain. The supplemental advisory...more
There is a growing acknowledgement that money laundering and terrorist financing is borderless and legal entity-agnostic, just as it is already known that cybercriminals and the means to commit cybercrimes continuously attack...more
Money laundering generally refers to financial transactions in which criminals, including terrorist organizations, attempt to disguise the proceeds, sources, or nature of their illicit activities. Money laundering facilitates...more
On February 24, the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration issued hundreds of new Russia-related export controls and sanctions. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the...more
Crypto’s two calling cards, decentralization and anonymity, can lead to abuses, such as money laundering and tax evasion. The U.S. Treasury has long combatted crypto money laundering...more
U.S. Companies Announce Crypto Cashback and NFT Ticketing Initiatives - According to recent reports, a major U.S. credit card company has partnered with Swoo, a mobile wallet blending traditional and crypto payments, to...more
Recently, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (“ICBC”) entered into two consent orders. The first consent order is with the New York State Department of Financial Services (the “NYDFS”) for alleged deficiencies...more
Cryptocurrency, with its anonymity and decentralization, has revolutionized financial transactions. However, it has also opened doors for illicit activities, such as terrorist financing. Below we explore the role of...more
Background: On Friday November 29, 2023, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Sinbad.io (“Sinbad”), alleging that the virtual currency mixer serves as a key money-laundering...more
What You Need to Know - In October 2023, the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) enacted multiple sanctions targeting the supply chain of fentanyl and other illicit drugs. In addition to...more
The U.S. authorities are increasingly taking actions against big-name crypto mixers for potential violations of sanctions regulations. On November 29, 2023, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control...more
On November 21, 2023, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced its largest settlement in history with the virtual currency exchange Binance. This almost-billion dollar settlement is a part of a larger...more
As the world now knows, Binance Holdings Limited, doing business as Binance.com (“Binance” or the “Company”), has entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”)....more
Summary of What Has Happened and What Is Yet to Come - On 19 October 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), pursuant to...more
Priorities Echo Prior Alerts and Enforcement Actions - The SEC’s Division of Examinations (the “Division”) released on October 16 a report on its “Examination Priorities” (the “Report”) for fiscal year 2024. This release...more
Earlier this month, John Can Unsalan, the president of a steel-making company with ties to Russian oligarchs, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, based on financial transactions committed with...more
Crypto Firms Continue to Launch New Initiatives Across Markets - In a recent press release, digital asset infrastructure firm Fireblocks announced its acquisition of BlockFold, “a smart contract development and...more
The new Director of FinCEN, Andrea Gacki, addressed several key topics on October 3, 2023 at the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (“ACAMS”) conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Specifically, Director...more
In two prior posts, this blog tracked the ongoing intrigue of how the various branches of the United States government interact with blockchain and cryptocurrency organizations. We discussed the Wyoming law allowing...more
Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixer, recently suffered two major setbacks in federal regulatory efforts to block its use and prosecute its founders. First, a federal district court threw out a lawsuit challenging the...more
On August 16, 2023, OFAC announced a $660,594 settlement with Construction Specialties Inc. (CS) for alleged violations of the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR). OFAC found that CS’s wholly controlled...more
Complex Civil and Criminal Cases Converge - On August 17, 2023, Judge Robert Pitman of the federal district court for the Western District of Texas issued an Order granting summary judgment for the U.S. Treasury Department...more
District Court Upholds Tornado Cash Sanctions, DOJ Charges Founders - On August 17, a Texas federal court found that Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer (which obscures the source of crypto transactions) is an entity that can be...more
First of Two Blog Posts in a Series Pertaining to Attorneys Convicted of Money Laundering - In February, we blogged on the indictment of Vladimir Voronchenko (“Voronchenko”) in the Southern District of New York (“SDNY”),...more
ETH Staking Data Published, USDC Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol Launches - New data reflects that the recent amount of staking withdrawals on Ethereum has been balanced by a roughly equal amount of deposits. According to...more