In a display of the United States' jurisdictional reach, the Justice Department has indicted KuCoin, a prominent global cryptocurrency exchange, along with founders Chun Gan and Ke Tang, for Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and...more
Two recent guilty pleas involving a cryptocurrency exchange serve as a reminder to all money services businesses (“MSBs”)—including those ostensibly located outside the United States but that conduct business there—of the...more
3/4/2022
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BitMEX ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
FinCEN ,
Guilty Pleas ,
Know Your Customers ,
Money Services Business ,
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
Two recent guilty pleas involving a cryptocurrency exchange serve as a reminder to all money services businesses (“MSBs”)—including those ostensibly located outside the United States but that conduct business there—of the...more
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reached one of the largest-ever resolutions with a cryptocurrency exchange on August 10, 2021. BitMEX is virtual currency...more
8/20/2021
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BitMEX ,
CFTC ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Institutions ,
FinCEN ,
FinTech ,
Popular ,
Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) ,
Virtual Currency
On January 1, 2021, Congress enacted a broad range of anti-money laundering (“AML”) reforms within the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (the “AML Act”), as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021...more
2/4/2021
/ AML/CFT ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Beneficial Owner ,
BSA/AML ,
Corruption ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Transactions ,
Money Laundering ,
Terrorist Financing Regulations ,
Whistleblowers ,
White Collar Crimes
On October 8, 2020, the U.S. Attorney General’s Cyber-Digital Task Force released its Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework. The Framework makes clear that, in addition to prosecuting bad actors who use cryptocurrency to...more
Anti-money laundering authorities are proposing a significant revision to the federal AML regulatory scheme with the aim of making it more effective while providing greater clarity to covered institutions. ...more
10/9/2020
/ Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) ,
Anti-Corruption ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BSA/AML ,
Corruption ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Transactions ,
FinCEN ,
Money Laundering ,
Public Comment ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Risk Assessment ,
White Collar Crimes
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and federal banking regulators recently issued a Joint Statement intended to clarify the due diligence obligations of banks under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) regarding...more
9/17/2020
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
BSA/AML ,
Customer Due Diligence (CDD) ,
FFIEC ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
FinCEN ,
Joint Statements ,
Politically Exposed Person (PEPs) ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Risk-Based Approaches
I. Background -
Sweden’s financial supervisory authority (“SFSA”) recently fined Swedbank AB a record 4 billion Swedish kronor (approximately $386 million) for deficiencies in its anti-money laundering (“AML”) processes...more
4/19/2020
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Beneficial Owner ,
BSA/AML ,
Corruption ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Crimes ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Transactions ,
Know Your Customers ,
Money Laundering ,
Sweden ,
White Collar Crimes